The Struggle Within
by batwheelsz350
Summary: Early in the N52 Justice League, our heroes grow and evolve as individuals and as a team against the evils of the world and their own life experiences. Rated T for the moment, but violent content may cause the rating to increase. Initially some BMCW & SMWW, followed by SMLL and BMWW. Disclaimer: DC Characters are not owned by me and this story is not for profit, only enjoyment.
1. Chapter 1

Before delving into this fic and this chapter, I wanted to take a moment to shout out to CrazyPhenom, who will be working with me extensively on this story. Our goal is to delve into the New52, but to have the story actually be good at the same time. I know I know, a lofty goal considering what we have to work with. Also, as fellow BMWW fans, we're going to work toward showing how the sword slashing happy, almost blood thirsty N52 Wonder Woman can grow naturally into becoming more of the character that we all love. So stick with us on this fic as it will not be of the same New52 type that we've all come to dislike.

As always, this story contains characters owned by DC and is not our property, nor is this story meant for profit, but only for everyone to hopefully enjoy, and please do not sue. Now, that we have that out of the way, without further ado onto the story.

Chapter 1: Conflicts in Conversation

* * *

It was a calm but cloudy evening in Gotham City. There was barely any wind coursing through the air as the street lamps began to slowly flicker to life signaling the evening's end as it morphed into night. There was always a transition of life in the streets of this city to coincide with the day's cycle as the business world seemed to have a grip on things during the daylight before giving way to the more violent nightlife. In between that was a window of time where everything seemed to be serene and quiet. It was as though that served as a grace period which allowed the good people of Gotham to scurry away into the safety of their homes without conflict. Seeing this transition each day brought about one man's wish that was seemingly stronger than all others that this time would extend to the entirety of each day. It was that serenity that caused him to fight so hard to achieve. For now though it was still a dream yet to be fulfilled, but he would never stop. Not until he'd attained that goal for this beaten down city, and until that time came he would remain vigilant working towards that goal.

It was currently that time of day as the silence was interrupted by the sounds of a black jet as it streaked upward through the evening sky carrying its pilot up and eventually out of the atmosphere. Those sounds often served as a warning for all that were about to descend upon the city with ill intentions, but on this night the sounds came about due to a different reason. On this night, the vigilante known as the Batman was heading toward the space station dubbed as the Watchtower, which also served as housing for some members in the Justice League. The League itself had been together a little over one year much to the chagrin of some of it's members, but it couldn't be argued that much had been accomplished in that short amount of time. Even their facilities had improved as they went from an empty government building in a set location on the planet to the space station. In orbiting the Earth, it allowed them to hasten their response time to certain areas of the world. In truth, the Watchtower had proven to become an efficient central hub to operate out of. Victor Stone, who was quickly becoming better known as Cyborg had spent much of his time onboard the space station. His biomechanics had come in handy with all of the technology that they now could utilize simply because of the abilities that the half machine and half man had at his literal fingertips. He'd used his internal technology to integrate some schematics from alien technology into a working tool, such as using the mother box from the Darkseid invasion to create a slightly less intrusive teleportation system.

Batman was actually the only active member of the Justice League that still refused to use that technology. He wasn't exactly comfortable with such a means of transport, and wouldn't be until he had enough free time to look over all of the schematics himself in order to come to a better understanding of how the equipment worked. Until then he would continue using his Batwing to travel between his city and the Watchtower. The travel time was increased exponentially, but that only caused him to avoid making the long trek as much as possible. He'd used the excuse that it pulled him away from his duty with Gotham as his justifiable reasoning for being absent so often. This time was no different in his desire not to attend as there were no large threats at the moment to be concerned with needing the Justice League's involvement, but even though what was on the agenda was technically considered simply a standard business as usual meeting he knew that there was one topic which required his attendance.

Batman had learned a valuable lesson when he'd neglected to be present before as a similar topic was broached, and his absence then caused the decision to go against the way he'd have voted. This time was going to be different though with him making certain that he was in attendance. Now there would be a voice of reason to be heard. Once he reached the outer atmosphere of the planet, he set the autopilot and then began some final preparations; flipping on a recorded news report to refresh his memory on the topic that he knew would end up turning into a heated exchange of words at the very least. He waited patiently as the video eventually buffered before it began to play.

"Proof that life on Mars existed is now a foregone conclusion it seems." The reporter stated. "One surprising twist though is the man that chose to stand in front of various boards of government offering his protection for the Martian. Metropolis' own Superman seems to have taken this other alien under his protective wing, stating that the people had no reason to fear the Martian, dubbed as J'onn. The only argument that he offered as justification was using himself as the example that aliens shouldn't be thought to be a threat just because they come from a different planet. With Superman's stance, the question that everyone has to be asking now would have to be will the Martian be offered a position to join the Justice League."

Batman turned off the video at that point, having heard enough as the space station had also come into view. He uploaded the video onto a thumb drive in preparation should Superman attempt to leave the topic out of the meeting's agenda so that he could bring it up himself if need be. All of the top line criminals were locked away at the moment so there shouldn't be anything to pull him away until the topic could be broached before the meeting adjourned.

An hour later, the conference room door swooshed open followed immediately by the dark armored Batman exiting. He had a menacing and quick pace established as he stomped his way down the corridor. He'd heard enough. They'd been together as a group for just over a year, and already there was great dissention in the ranks. It was a fool's errand to believe that any of the high and mighty Meta humans would listen to reason, not that he'd been surprised. However he still couldn't believe that they were so willing to blindly trust someone that they knew so little about. Trust had to be earned, not given. That was the way things needed to be. He'd survived and prospered as Gotham's vigilante by maintaining that policy. You simply don't work along with someone that you don't know enough about, and if you don't know enough about them then you certainly shouldn't trust them. He was just about to enter the elevator when one of the two voices that he'd hoped to get away from called to him from behind. "The meeting hasn't ended yet!" Wonder Woman shouted as she marched purposefully after him. "You cannot leave!"

"There's no reason for me to stay." Batman responded as he stopped in front of an elevator and selected the floor button. As he stood back watching the elevator doors close in Wonder Woman's face he grimaced at what was sure to come. Had it been any other member of the Justice League he'd have smirked triumphantly at successfully evading them, but he knew better than to think that way with her. She'd find out what floor he was headed to or worse yet simply know where he was heading, and end up meeting him there before he could get to the Batwing. Sure enough, when the elevator doors opened to reveal the hangar deck, there she was standing with her arms crossed defiantly over her chest as she was glowering back at him with a look that rivaled one of his own patented batglares.

"Where do you think you're going?" She angrily asked.

"Gotham." Batman responded as he started to walk around her. "There are more important things to do there than argue with Superman over the merits of just freely offering memberships to the League. If he doesn't like the rules we all established when the League was formed, then he shouldn't have agreed to them."

"He didn't agree to them." Diana fired back as she followed step for step next to Batman, ready to halt his progress if he did attempt to climb into his jet.

"It's not my problem that he didn't attend the meeting where the rules and regulations of how the Justice League operates was voted and approved of." Batman retorted as he stopped right next to his Batwing. He could read in Wonder Woman's body language that she had no intentions of letting him leave before she had her say, not that it would do her any good other than venting her opinion. "You managed to be there when the regulations were voted on."

"And I didn't vote for these rules either." Wonder Woman countered.

"Regardless, the vote was passed by majority, and because of that no new members are to be accepted into the League unless unanimously ruled in favor of." Batman explained. "I voted against, and until I've had proper time to investigate him and come to some sort of a comfort level with him, that's where my vote will stay. Nothing you or your boyfriend say will change that."

"Perhaps the next vote should be for specific current members and if they should remain with the League since that's your stance." Superman announced as he glided down from above, interrupting the argument. When he landed, he temporarily focused his attention to Wonder Woman. "Diana, Batman and I need to have a word. If you would give us a moment?"

Wonder Woman glanced back and forth between the two men. She saw how resolutely each of them stood before the other. It truly would be like the saying of when the irresistible force meets the immovable object. Her anger at being dismissed and her curiosity was peaked, but she instead chose to comply with Superman's wish for the time being. She didn't have much more of an argument to make anyways. Batman was a stubborn ass, and she knew that there was nothing to be said which would sway his vote.

Both men waited until Diana was in the elevator and the doors closed before they turned back to each other. As soon as the doors slid closed though, Superman didn't waste time mincing words. "Why are you being so difficult Bruce? You didn't put up this much of a fight with Aquaman joining."

"No one ever said I was perfect." Batman sarcastically responded. "And in any public forum, it's Batman. You know that _Clark_."

"So why are you so against bringing him in when you weren't with Aquaman?" Superman continued to press, ignoring the point being made of his alter ego being known for the moment.

"Aquaman being with the League better enables us to keep a closer watch on his people." Batman explained. "There's nothing to gain in this instance. We know next to nothing about the Martian, and he's supposedly the last of his kind."

"That's hardly a valid reason." Superman countered. "I'm the last of my kind."

Batman crossed his arms over his chest as he glared at the Man of Steel saying nothing. Superman's eyes widened as the silence began to grow, realizing that Batman wasn't intending to say anything about the point he'd just made. "So now it comes out." Superman surmised as he placed his arms across his own broad chest. "We've worked together in this Justice League for over a year and now come to find out that you don't trust me either. Why?"

"I have my reasons." Batman cryptically answered.

"You know something _Bruce_." Superman sneered when quietly calling Batman by his real name. "Out of everyone here, it seems like you're the one that shouldn't be trusted. After all, you're the one with all the secrets. You're the one that doesn't respond to any calls unless it's on your own terms, and you're the one that refuses to go along with anyone else's plans, but at the same time expect us all to fall in line at the snap of your fingers."

Both men stood there silently for a moment as Superman had pretty much forgotten what it was that he'd actually intended on saying due to his realization that a member of his team didn't trust him still. It angered him to know this as he'd done nothing for Bruce to distrust him since they'd known each other. In fact, the more he'd thought about it, it was Bruce that had been sneaking around this entire time. He'd caught Bruce in his city snooping around, but not before Bruce had discovered his own secret identity. Back then he'd thought that it was just a tactic to get even as he'd already deduced the Batman's secret identity by using his powers prior to lead lining being added to the cowl, but now he was questioning if that was the sole purpose of Bruce's unannounced visit. Was he searching for something else or even something more? Unfortunately he didn't get the chance to ask those questions as Bruce had taken the silent moment and bypassed him, climbing into the cockpit of the Batwing. "If there's nothing else…" Batman trailed off as the hatch closed and the alarm began to sound announcing that the dock was about to pressurize for vehicle release.

While Superman could certainly stand there even with the pressure change, he instead turned to make his leave. There was nothing more to be said for the time being with that stubborn ass at the other end of any conversation. Instead he'd just put that little item in the back of his mind for another time, but the conversation was nowhere near over even if Batman believed that to be the case.

Batman pushed out a frustrated breath after deporting the Watchtower landing bay. He simply couldn't believe how willingly the rest of the League had been to just take on another member. They knew next to nothing about this J'onn as he was being called now by the rest of them. At least with Superman there had been some base line established to research and come to a more educated conclusion. Although had it not been for the invasion attempt by Darkseid, he'd still have had a vast apprehension about joining forces with someone that seemed to come off as believing himself above the rest of the world. As he came to think about how the League came to be, he thought about how Wonder Woman wasn't much better either if he were honestly going to assess her or other members within the League along with Superman. Not even Hal Jordan, Billy, or Victor were ideal and fully trustworthy in his opinion. But the attempted invasion did happen, and all of them had fought together and successfully repelled the threat. He knew that there was absolutely no way in hell that he'd have been able to stop such a juggernaut without all of them there to fight alongside him, and that incident did offer some positives for him.

That was one of the main reasons for choosing to accept being initially added as a member of the Justice League when it was suggested that the heroes all join together. It also helped in gaining some leeway with his mission on protecting Gotham. The innocent people were less afraid of having a vigilante in their city at night, and the police had also backed off. He'd even begun to establish a sort of working relationship with one of the up and coming detectives in James Gordon. It was no coincidence that after the incident was when things started to seemingly make a noticeable turn for the better in Gotham. Without having to watch his own back so much from the threat of getting arrested, he was better able to focus on the criminal element. No scenario was perfect, but it had at least improved slightly, and for that city any discernible improvement was saying something.

Breaking him out of his reverie, a tone started to beep in the Batwing indicating that an incoming message had been received. Sighing in an attempt to relieve some stress from the meeting, Bruce then pressed a button to open the video conference. "What is it Alfred?" He asked.

"Just curious as to how the meeting went with your super powered colleagues sir." Alfred responded. "I do hope it ended better than the last time."

"Not really Alfred." Bruce replied. "I knew that they were going to try and slip an invitation to the Martian without my consent. Unfortunately for them that I was prepared this time around."

"Forgive my boldness sir, but perhaps you should take note that sometimes the best way to attract bees is with honey and not vinegar." Alfred suggested.

"I don't have time to waste trying to play nice with a group of Meta's Alfred." Bruce retorted. "Besides you should know by now that it isn't the way I work."

"Just thinking of how a change of pace might be more fruitful in the future sir." Alfred explained. "You are supposed to work alongside these people after all. Wouldn't it be prudent to at least try to get along?"

"I'm not in this to make friends Alfred." Bruce argued. "I've got too much on my plate to worry about being in some type of popularity contest. Now, if you're done with that topic I assume there was a real reason for you to call?"

"Just to inform you that Master Richard decided that it was time to return to Bludhaven instead of accompanying you on patrol tonight sir." Alfred responded, allowing the previous topic to drop for the time being.

That was actually a refreshing thought, getting to patrol that night on his own. Dick had been patrolling with him at night for the past three days, and although he appreciated the change to spend time with his adopted son, the solitude would give him time to sift through his thoughts and the comments that were shared as the members of the Justice League argued back and forth over the merit of adding a telepath to the team. Actually, if he thought honestly for the most part it was him that argued against versus the rest of them. That thought brought a smirk to his face as the rules and regulations he'd managed to push through gave him some salvation for the idiocy of others in certain situations. He'd hoped that those protocols wouldn't be necessary, but it was better to have them in place and not need them versus needing them and not having them.

Back up in the Watchtower, Wonder Woman joined Superman outside the elevator as he'd left the hangar bay. He was still visibly frustrated, which obviously meant that he'd not been able to successfully sway Batman's stance on allowing J'onn to become a member of the Justice League either. "Perhaps next time we should pull Batman aside together when attempting to convince him that he's standing on the wrong side of a topic." She stated to break the silence.

"That would only leave the both of us more frustrated." Superman responded. "That man's stubbornness rivals my invulnerability. There just doesn't seem to be any way to get around it."

"Then we should bring up a proposal of a set amount of time for Batman to investigate J'onn since that was his main argument against voting for J'onn's admittance into the League." Diana suggested. "When that time passes; a second vote should be taken for his admittance into the League. The first proposal won't need a unanimous decision based on Batman's list of regulations and procedures, and he'll likely not even show up for the second vote once the time elapses. Or perhaps he'll perform his investigation and realize that J'onn should've just been permitted to join us from the very beginning."

"That's actually a really good idea Diana." Superman said as he smiled upon hearing her suggestion. "You should bring it up in the meeting next week. We'll get J'onn in here at some point one way or another."

"Yes, so next week it is then." Diana agreed before leaning in closer. "Perhaps we should thank Batman for causing the meeting to end early."

"Why would we want to do that?" Superman questioned as though she'd lost her mind.

"Because the meeting ended early enough tonight allowing us time to change into civilian attire and blend in with the populous for dinner." She answered with a smile. "I get tired of only eating in the commissary and the planet seems to be quiet for the time being. Maybe this time we won't be interrupted."

Superman smiled again at Wonder Woman's suggestion. It was good to practice blending in with the people, and he did enjoy spending time with his Amazon Princess.

An hour later inside a restaurant located in downtown Metropolis, Clark Kent had just finished eating his meal as Diana Prince was seated across from him sipping on her tea. He took his napkin and wiped at the corners of his mouth while chewing and swallowing the final tasty morsel of his meal. They'd been talking sporadically in between ordering drinks, appetizers, food, and while eating, but now that both o them were finished, he decided to start off where the conversation had paused earlier. "I just don't get it. Why wouldn't he have reason to trust in me?"

"I highly doubt that it's you he has issues trusting Clark." Diana offered. "It seems to me that's just who he is."

"It's not just that though Diana." Clark continued. "He's the most difficult person on the team to work with unless you follow his way specifically. Sometimes I wonder if he isn't more a detriment than a benefit."

"I can certainly understand where you're coming from Clark." Diana replied. "In the beginning especially he got on my nerves, but eventually I came to understand better how he worked. He relies solely on his intellect almost to a fault at all times, and irritatingly I've found that he is correct more often than not. That's especially true while participating with a mission. He seems to have an innate ability to discover the precise choices to bring an outcome our way."

"I know Diana." Clark exasperatedly said followed by a frustrated sigh. "I know that he's intelligent, but even knowing that sometimes I wonder if the League wouldn't be better off without him. I'm not the only one that feels this way either. Arthur's questioned his overall usefulness on a few separate occasions."

"As a newer member, Arthur's opinion might not hold as much water at the moment." Diana responded. "I still don't believe that you'd receive a majority vote, and if it's questionable then the topic shouldn't be brought up at all. It would only place dissention amongst us, and we're still working to become a coherent unit."

"You're right, you're right." Clark conceded before noticing their waiter approaching, which brought a smile onto his face. "So….dessert?"

"Only if they serve ice cream." Diana responded with a hopeful look. She could really enjoy some of the delicious dessert that was quickly becoming a favorite for her, but also she was happy that the shop talk seemed to be coming to an end so that they could potentially enjoy an uneventful rest of the evening together.

While Superman and Wonder Woman were enjoying their dinner date, a small group of men were inside of a chemical lab. There was a man in a white lab coat crawling his way back up to his hands and knees. One eye was swollen shut and blood was trickling from the corners of his mouth. He was having difficulty catching his breath after having the wind repeatedly knocked out of him. He'd been beaten for what felt like hours even though in reality not even one had surpassed yet. Slowly, he began to crawl forward, eventually reaching forward to grab hold of a pant leg that was attached to the one man out of the group standing around him that seemed to be in charge as he began to whimper. "Pl….please…." He begged hoping for mercy.

"Your time is up." The leader stated as he looked down with a sneer on his face. "We want what you promised us, and we want it now."

"B…but, I don't have it yet." The bloody professor replied. "I…I just need some more time. I told you that I couldn't get what you wanted ready with the time you gave me."

Instead of time being given to him, he received a kick to the midsection that drove the wind out of him once again. "Beating you doesn't seem to be sinking in doctor." The leader called out to him while walking over to another man and holding his hand out. The other man placed something into the leader's waiting hand, and once it was in his grasp, he knelt down and placed what was quickly discovered to be a picture in front of the beaten victim. "You've got twenty-four hours to get results and finish with our deal or the next visit we make will be to her."

The blood dripped onto the picture of a beautiful little girl as the beaten professor gasped in shock. "No." He pleaded. "Not my little girl."

"Then finish your job." The leader stated as he stood back up before delivering one last kick. He then relaxed in his posture while pulling a cigarette and lighter from a pouch in his jacket. The man stuck the filter in between his lips before striking the lighter and inhaling as the flame touched the cigarette's unfiltered end. A puff of smoke was blown out when he once again turned his attention to the professor that was still lying on the ground, but now clutching the picture tightly. "Oh, and don't even think about taking off with her. We've got eyes everywhere, and if you try anything stupid, we'll make you watch what happens to her."

The group of men all made their leave after having successfully sent their message to the good professor, who was beginning to cough while he tried to suck some oxygen back into his lungs. He was shaking uncontrollably at the thought of just what these horrible men might do to his daughter. Twenty-four hours just wasn't enough time on his own to get them the results they wanted. He needed a miracle, but knew that one wouldn't likely to be coming.

The professor knew that he had to move and move quickly for his daughter's sake. So he took in a deep breath and dragged himself over to a stool before pulling himself up to a vertical base. After taking in a few sobering breaths and becoming accustomed to the feeling of pain that he was in, he wiped the blood dripping from his mouth onto the sleeve of his jacket and turned toward the closest computer monitor. He had work to do, and a deadline to meet, in every sense of the word.


	2. Chapter 2: Find the girl

Chapter 2: Find the girl

* * *

It was a dreary night in downtown Gotham. High above those who chose to move about the streets below, Batman was crouched on the ledge of a tall building. Rain drops were traveling like rivulets in different directions down the black cowl that covered his face. He wasn't seeking someplace dry to go like those down below. He was remaining vigilant, waiting for his Batwing to slice through the sky to his location. A little girl had been reported missing two days earlier by her mother in Gotham, prompting the Batman to act. What had forced him to leave his city on this night was the location of the girl's last known whereabouts. She hadn't been seen or heard from since being picked up after school on a Friday night by her father, who happened to live in Washington D.C. The fact that the father hadn't been successfully reached had brought him to this point. All of his investigation into the father from this point offered little to support a theory of him taking off with his daughter into hiding. Her father's disappearance also offered the glimpse of hope that the girl could be saved though, even though she'd been missing for over forty-eight hours already. That timeline normally would spell certain doom, but with family involved that would hopefully be enough to extend that timeline until some fruitful leads could be discovered. A crack of lightning and the sound of the jet engines roaring closer managed to get the vigilante to glance upward, letting loose a small grunt of satisfaction. The rain wouldn't last much longer, and within the hour he could get to work.

Wonder Woman was making her normal rounds to protect the citizens of Washington D.C. just like she did on any other night that didn't involve League activities. It was a pleasant change of pace from the recent missions that she'd been involved with lately. Working as a team was enjoyable, but occasionally it was nice to get out on your own. Besides, her plans with Superman had fallen through as there had been a situation to deal with in Metropolis requiring his attention. So she decided scouring her city for any trouble would help to sate her appetite for some action. The rain that swung through had ended a few minutes earlier, and that meant the nighttime activity was about to pick up. She rubbed her hands together in anticipation as she landed on top of a bank. A van sitting out front served as the indicator to her that a brief stop could be necessary, and sure enough when she peered over the ledge her suspicions were confirmed. Some armed men in ski masks were attempting to break in without triggering any alarms. She only hoped as she leapt over the ledge that one of these criminals turned out to be a Meta so that there would at least be somewhat of a challenge for her.

Landing silently behind the group, Wonder Woman stood there quietly until the man picking the lock had just finished his part of the robbery. "Looks like you _gentlemen_ need some help." She called out, grabbing all of their attention immediately as the five men spun around to see who had managed to get between them and the van unnoticed.

It's Wonder Woman!" One criminal yelled as he pulled a gun out from underneath his jacket.

Diana was frustrated to find that there didn't appear to be any Meta's among the group, all seeming to reach for some type of weapon. She almost felt like yawning in disinterest as she effortlessly blocked the lead projectiles with her bracers, before pulling her shield and flinging it into the midsection of another member of the group. With him incapacitated for the moment, she moved in on the one that had chosen to fire upon her as he attempted to change clips in his gun. She lunged forward, grabbing hold of the weapon and the thug's hand, squeezing hard enough to hear bones cracking followed by a pain filled yelp. The other three men had scattered just before that, one of them deciding that the van was his best option.

Diana allowed him to go as she took flight to chase down the other two. She rounded a corner and with her lasso at the ready in her hands, she whipped it around a couple times before flinging it forward to capture the two men. As soon as the lasso roped around the two men, she gave a not so gentle tug, which jerked the men off of their feet falling unceremoniously onto their rear ends. With them secured, she then took flight, her cargo unwillingly following along for the ride.

It only took a matter of minutes before she located the van. The thug's still quite erratic driving aided her in locating him quickly. To throw the man behind the wheel for a loop, she took the other two men in her lasso and dangled them just in front of the windshield. The van came to a screeching halt as soon as the driver saw this. He didn't know what to do, and knew that anything he did come up with would most likely end very badly. So instead he put the van into park and exited the driver side door with his hands held high in surrender.

Diana scowled at the last man. The whole fight had been barely five minutes. She didn't even really have to try all that hard, and it was thoroughly disappointing. Regardless though, these criminals were going to see justice. She'd just have to look elsewhere for some excitement.

Batman had just forced his way into the father of the missing girl's home. It didn't take him long after glancing around the small condo to deduce with reasonably high confidence that any attempt of fleeing was unlikely. He'd already been leaning to that side after researching the divorce and custody court records. The parents had been separated for over two years with no previous issue concerning custody to date. Going through the girl's room and then the father's, any attempt to have fled would've been completely unplanned as there didn't appear to be anything that was unpacked. Instead the girl's room left the appearance of an apparent struggle that a small girl would be able to put up against an adult. There wasn't much broken, but there was enough that seemed completely out of place like a lamp lying on her bedroom floor to indicate that something had transpired there. Moving on to the father's room, it appeared to have not been slept in for days. The bed was neatly made and the closet filled with clothes.

As he searched through the house for any evidence that would potentially lead him to the location of the girl, one thing became completely evident. This man lived to make certain that his daughter was happy. Her room held by far the most items, and the rest of the condo was littered with photos of a smiling little girl. There were even a couple of photographs that contained the mother, father, and daughter together. The parents may have been divorced, but all the evidence pointed to a more amicable splitting and working together in order to ensure that the little girl lived as happy a life as possible. It was also apparent that not much time had been spent in the condo either. There was very little in the means of food to be found inside the kitchen cupboards or refrigerator, which pointed to the parent and child eating out a lot at a minimum.

Having this information, Batman flipped open the portable computer installed onto his right gauntlet and hacked into the father's financial records. He easily found which weekends the daughter arrived with the number of restaurant charges increasing exponentially on those dates. Only this time the charges stopped as of the very Friday night that he'd picked up his daughter from her school. Like clockwork, they'd stopped at the same restaurant along the trip from Gotham to D.C. for dinner. The price total varied little from charge to charge, but never enough to indicate anything out of the ordinary. However, there was nothing charged from that moment on. Every other weekend there was a charge for donuts the following morning, and that gave Batman the window of when whatever had occurred likely took place. He needed more information though than what his portable computer could provide, so he shut and locked the protective layer over top of the keys which in turn powered off the 3-D light construct for a monitor. He went about searching the rest of the condo, but finding nothing of much use to the investigation and returned to the Batwing which had been flying overhead in silent mode.

Once back inside the cockpit of his jet, Batman used the internal computer to hack into the traffic cameras, and eventually the ATM cameras as well. He was beginning to go back over the information in search of anything that could potentially be out of place aside from the father, whom he'd basically passed off as innocent at this point unless something incriminating could be deciphered going forward. Still though more clues could be surrounded by the father, so he also input the father's place of employment into the navi-computer and allowed the jet to auto pilot to that destination while he delved into retracing the steps that the father and daughter had taken before they both disappeared.

The night had been quiet much to Diana's chagrin aside from the foiled bank robbery attempt earlier. It was turning out nicely as not only had the rain moved away, but the clouds were also beginning to dissipate to reveal some stars and the moonlight as it threatened to break through. Had she not felt the need to find a fight worthy of her abilities, it would've been enjoyable for her to take in. She knew that deep down she should want peace to overtake the world, but her fierce battle ready personality was parched, and only the blood of enemies dripping down the blade of her sword could quench that thirst. Unfortunately the earlier rain seemed to quell most of the nighttime activities on the streets as there just didn't seem to be anything going on that the police departments couldn't handle on their own, and that caused her to wonder if she should simply call it a night or perhaps head up to the Watchtower for some action.

Diana made her decision as she still had some pent up energy to release and reached up to her ear for the communicator to contact the Watchtower until her ears heard the distinct shrill of the Batwing flying by overhead. She glanced into the direction of the sound; not able to make out the location of the black as night jet ripping through the air, but knowing it had to be there. What was he doing outside of his precious city? Surely he knew that D.C. was where she stayed. She wondered why the Bat would be trespassing into her territory, and that curiousness altered her line of thinking. "Wonder Woman to Batman, come in." She called out after opening a channel. She waited almost a full minute before her patience wore out. She used her enhanced hearing as a tool to follow the jet. "I know that you are in my city Batman. If you wish for us to respect the boundaries you've set aside for Gotham, it isn't asking much for the same respect to be shown from you as well."

"Chasing a lead on a missing girl." Came Batman's curt response, and the response caught her by surprise more than anything else. A missing child while certainly no laughing matter still seemed rather low as a priority for someone such as a member of the Justice League to intervene when the police should clearly be able to handle such a situation.

"What is so special about this child that it caught your attention?" Diana asked. "Is she a Meta human or a part of some special authority in the world?"

"No, just a normal everyday child of Gotham." Batman answered.

Diana wasn't sure if she bought what Batman was telling her since he had chosen to leave his precious city. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to help Batman in his search. Two heads were always believed to be better than one after all. "Send me the coordinates of your heading." She stated. "I'll meet you there and assist with the search."

"Not necessary." Batman retorted. "I'll be gone by morning, and likely have located the girl on my own. Batman out."

Diana growled in frustration as soon as Batman had cut the feed. Who the hell did he think he was? First he comes into the city that she protects unannounced, and then when he's discovered he still refuses to include her in the investigation? She wasn't about to let that stand for one moment. There was more than one way to discover the information that she needed, and she opened another channel on her communicator. "Wonder Woman to Watchtower."

Batman set his jet down gently onto the rooftop of the facility that the missing biochemist worked at. Not but one second after the latch to the canopy opened, he leapt out of the cockpit with both feet landing on the ground. No sooner than once his feet touched the rooftop then did his back shoot ramrod straight and his fists squeezed into tight balls. "I said I could handle it." He said aloud without turning to face the presence that he instantly felt. "What are you doing here?"

"You hold no sway in Washington D.C. as you do in Gotham, Batman." Diana stated as she stepped into view. "If you wish to continue searching for this girl in the city that I protect, then you are going to have to accept my help with your search."

Batman grumbled as he turned to face her. She'd obviously reached out to the Watchtower and requested a missing children's report from Gotham to have discovered where he'd be heading. It was a calculated guess, but still somewhat impressive for choosing to travel to the father's place of employment in order to catch up to him. "Fine." He angrily relented.

Batman pulled up a schematic of the building using his portable computer on his gauntlet, looking over all the blueprints for access points as well as exits should the need arise. Diana stood there watching for a few moments, but quickly became impatient as the Dark Knight was standing there looking over the 3-D building. "Why are we still waiting?" She finally asked. "I thought you were looking for this missing child."

"I'm getting a familiarity with the building before entering." Batman explained. "We don't know what we're dealing with here. The girl and her father could be in a vulnerable position, and by bursting in haphazardly we could potentially place them into more danger than they may already be in."

"You believe the father is not involved?" Wonder Woman continued to question. From the report she'd been relayed, the father was still a primary suspect.

"All the information I've gone through indicates that David Parsons is a good father and has gotten along well with his ex for the benefit of their daughter." Batman explained as he switched gears and pulled up a profile of the father. "Parsons is the Senior Biochemist at Eastland Chemical, and has established himself as a very well respected throughout his field, but he prides his daughter over everything else based on what I found in his home. I don't believe he'd willingly do anything to jeopardize what time he does get to spend with her."

"Your belief in his innocence still doesn't rule him out Batman." Wonder Woman responded as she followed Batman over the side of the building to an exhaust ventilation port.

Batman worked on the grate covering the vent shaft until it was free, remaining silent until the two of them were crawling inside of it. "No it doesn't, but also after combing through various cameras throughout Parsons' normal trip back to the city I found that he was being followed up until he stopped at a restaurant that he frequented every time he brought his daughter home with him. He was never heard from after stopping to eat dinner there on Friday night."

"So you think that whoever this was that had been following him might have taken the father and child against their will?" Diana half surmised and half questioned.

"It's a possibility that I haven't ruled out yet." Batman answered before coming to a stop in front of an interior vent grate. It took little effort to pop it free from the wall once he believed the room to be secure. Now with access created, they both dropped into the vacant room. He took in his surroundings for a moment before heading out into a corridor. No sooner than when they both exited the room did Batman throw an arm back, colliding just above Wonder Woman's chest and pressing her up against the nearest wall. She was about to protest him laying a finger on her until he pointed upward to the corridor ceiling, revealing a security camera panning back and forth. They waited until the camera was pointing away from them, and then made their move to avoid detection by the security staff. This approach was foreign to Wonder Woman as she preferred to walk right in, making her presence known immediately, but as Batman currently was more familiar with the current case she chose to defer for the time being.

It didn't take long to locate and enter Parsons' office, and once inside Batman made for the computer. Diana looked over his shoulder as he plugged in a device and began hacking his way to get passed the password security protection. At first it seemed like he was just typing in random information, but after around five attempts, a pattern of letters began to appear. Attempt number seven turned out to be the correct combination. "How did you do that?" Wonder Woman asked.

"Psychological profile of David Parsons based on his belongings, and I still had three more tries before security locks would've enabled." Batman murmured as he started searching through all of the files. There were some of interest even though nothing stuck out to reveal any type of threat or inclusion of David's daughter, but there were a few files that seemed odd for a biochemist that would require more in depth investigation. To do this, he pulled out a thumb drive and downloaded all of the contents that Parsons had saved before moving onto the desk drawers and trash bins, which was surprisingly filled. That was where he found a real shred of evidence to potentially support his theory. A blood soaked rag was found there and it held entirely too much blood to have been something like a nosebleed. He pulled out an evidence bag and inserted the rag into it before sealing it up and stowing it away.

Watching Batman as he worked was almost like watching paint dry for the Amazon, but she had to admit that there seemed to be a logical method to the madness as Batman sought out anything that could potentially lead them to the location of the child. In fact, the more that they sought out clues, the more she began to agree with Batman that the father wasn't involved, but was rather a victim himself as well. What had become frustrating though was that they seemed to be no closer to finding the girl or her dad than they were when she'd first joined in the search hours earlier. Now they were standing atop a building looking down into some of the seedier areas of Washington D.C., and her patience was quickly running out. "Why are we just standing here?" She asked in a frustrated sigh. "We should be going out door to door searching for this poor child and her father."

"That will only waste time." Was Batman's simple response. "Besides, while we were in Parsons' office, I had an algorithm running in the Batwing computers looking for more footage of the two cars in question."

Diana glowered at Batman as he continued looking down into the streets below. "Wasting time is exactly what we're doing here!" She retorted in anger.

"Then go search door to door." Batman fired back, still not turning to look at her. "I'll let you know when I've found the girl."

"Why you arrogant, poor excuse for a hero!" Wonder Woman called out while throwing her arms up in frustration. Regardless of this man's reputation, he wasn't always right and she wanted nothing more than to prove him wrong so she could rub it in his cowled face. She was about to take off and continue the search herself when Batman suddenly leapt from the rooftop, plummeting down below before a grapple line shot up and attached to a nearby building. She ran over to the ledge and watched as Batman landed next to two cars. Diana narrowed her eyes as she watched him closely looking over the vehicles until she recalled the make and model of the father's car from the report she'd been briefed on from the Watchtower files. The second car seemed to be a match even though its plates didn't. Sighing again in resignation, she floated down to join Batman, who was in the process of looking up the tag numbers on the second vehicle. "I take it that these are the vehicles you'd located in the videos?"

"I believe so." Batman responded as he continued looking through the DMV records. "This is the other car I noticed in the videos too, so even with false plates that only increases the likelihood that this is his car." He paused as the search on the other car's plates came back. "Damn. False plates on this one too. I guess we'll have to do this the hard way. Search door to door. You go north and I'll head south. Four block radius before meeting back up. They have to be close by though, so try to keep a low profile. If we spook them, then they might attempt to run away or maybe do something even more desperate." Diana nodded and headed off in her direction, once again hopeful of some form of conflict with the captors.

"Hey Bobby." A man called out while peaking out a window through some curtains.

"What is it this time Joey?" Bobby asked, putting down a TV remote and standing up from a comfortable recliner. "Another false alarm?"

"We're gonna have company real soon." Joey answered as Bobby walked up and peaked his head out from behind the curtain too see for himself.

"Oh shit." Bobby said under his breath as he caught a glimpse of Wonder Woman searching a nearby house as though she were looking for a criminal inside. It'd only be a matter of time before she reached the house they were in and spotted the girl. Escape was now all that was on his mind as he began walking down a short hallway. "Get the girl. We gotta get outta here, and I've got an idea."

Diana was about to search her third house, slipping up to the front window and peering inside. She was awestruck at what she saw with a little girl bound to a chair in the middle of the room that she had looked into. From what she could tell, the girl was covered in blood for the most part. She wasted no time in bursting through the front door, smashing it into splinters as she pushed through. Diana immediately went over to the girl, checking for her pulse until she heard a whimper escape from the gagged lips. Diana reached up to her communicator and accessed an open channel. "Wonder Woman to Batman. I found the girl."

Within minutes Batman arrived to find that Wonder Woman had freed the little girl from her bindings. She was shaking and sobbing as he knelt down in front of her. The girl clung to Wonder Woman in fear as Batman pulled out a device and held it up against the midriff of the girl's shirt that was more heavily soaked in blood. Diana watched as Batman gathered what he needed before standing and proceeding with the rest of the house in a room by room search. She was forced to try calming the child as the girl continued to sob while squeaking out incoherent words at first, but eventually became more clear as calls for her mommy and daddy.

When Batman returned empty handed she knew that the ones responsible for holding this girl had escaped their grasp, but she was taking consolation for the moment that the little girl had been found alive. Apart from the trauma of being kidnapped, she seemed to be alright health wise as well. Suddenly though Batman's voice grabbed her attention. "Get her to the police. We've got to get moving or the trail will go cold."

Was this man being serious? While she also didn't want to let the criminals get away, she also was well aware that Batman hadn't spoken a single word to the girl, let alone made any effort to calm her whatsoever. She knew that he hid his emotions well, but didn't think that he was really as coldhearted as the rumors said until now. He seemed to be fine with the knowledge that the girl lived, and now his sole focus was only on the criminals. She wanted to lash out at him, but thought that would only build upon the overwhelming stress that the little girl was dealing with. So that confrontation would have to wait until after she ensured the girl was safely in the hands of the police.

When Diana had returned after safely handing the girl over to the proper authorities, she found Batman crouched down in an alleyway. Floating down just behind him, she was still incredibly angered at how he'd handled finding the kidnapped child, but Batman was surprisingly the first one to speak. "The kidnappers waited until you left to slip away using a vehicle that was parked here." He said while pointing to some tire tracks in front of him. "I'm scanning them for the make and model of the tire to help narrow down some possibilities as to which vehicle they drove off in, but even then I could only speculate. Did the girl tell you anything useful before you dropped her off?"

"She barely spoke a word, not that you'd care unless it had to do with the case." She fired back in a venom laced response.

Batman stood and faced the red hot angry Amazon. "Look at me Wonder Woman." He retorted. "This suit isn't designed to offer comfort, and she was obviously in shock. It would only make things worse for her if I did come close even if I had the warmest and kindest of intentions. This isn't the first time for me being around a petrified child, and I know from past experience what helps and what doesn't. The Batman up close isn't helpful, and I'll avoid that unless absolutely necessary. I wouldn't have even come up to her at all with you there if it weren't for the necessity of scanning the blood on her clothes."

Diana's eyes widened momentarily upon hearing his explanation. In looking at him through a child's eyes, she could see how that might come off as frightening, and therefore made sense even though she still felt that he could've at least spoken kindly to the child. He did get close enough to scan her clothing after all. "Did anything useful come from your investigation?" She asked, now slightly more calm. "Perhaps a lead from the blood?"

"I know two things based on the blood that was found." Batman explained. "First is that the blood on the girl's shirt matches what we found at her father's work area, and the second is that both samples are the father's."

"Do you think that he was killed?" She questioned.

"That depends, but it's highly likely." Was Batman's cryptic response.

"Depends on what?" She prodded.

"On if he's actually given them whatever it is that they were after." Batman replied. "They were serious enough to have at a minimum, beaten him. It was likely in front of the girl guessing from the blood on her clothing. With the girl being separated from him he's obviously complying by now, and unless he hears of her safety then it's only a matter of time. Once his usefulness ends, then so will his life."

"Then we need to hurry up and find her father." Diana announced.

"We?" Batman questioned. "I'm heading back to the cave. I need to sift through all of Parsons' files to see if there's anything useful there. Had the kidnappers not escaped, I could've gotten some answers from them."

"I'll accompany you to your cave then." Diana responded.

Batman let out a frustrated sigh. "No."

"No?" Diana exasperatedly repeated in a questioning tone.

Batman knew that he wasn't going to get out of this. There was not enough distance to lose her with, and any chance of locating Parsons alive dwindled with every passing minute. "Fine. If you want to help, then you can locate the two men that were holding the girl here prisoner. If you don't find them by tomorrow night, I'll join you with the search. Otherwise call me. We need answers, and we need them now otherwise that girl will have to grow up without her father."

Diana wanted to argue that he just didn't want her to follow him, but couldn't disagree that splitting up the tasks could be beneficial. Therefore she nodded her agreement and they headed off in their own directions. They had answers to find.


	3. Chapter 3: Dead Ends

Chapter 3: Dead Ends

* * *

Balancing a tray in one hand with a certain amount of grace, Alfred made his way down into the depths of the "lower levels" underneath Wayne manor. He'd prepared a fine dish to serve the master of the manor, and the only question for the evening would be if his surrogate son would take the time to even scarf it down, let alone enjoy the cuisine.

Over his years, Alfred had become quite adept at walking silently, almost to the point of startling many guests that he'd had the opportunity to interact with. With his surrogate son however, no matter how quiet he could be, it still was almost a fruitless endeavor. Almost. And at the final step, he found that the young man seated before him was obviously in rare form on this night. "What is it Alfred?" Bruce asked while simultaneously staring intently at the monitors before him.

"Only dinner sir." The faithful butler replied, as he marched up to the computer desk and sat the tray down before lifting the cover off to reveal what he'd concocted in the kitchen. "Carbonnade a la flamande, Master Bruce."

"I don't have time for that now Alfred." Bruce quickly shot down.

"But sir, you've barely eaten at all in almost a week." Alfred pointed out in an attempt to reason. "Surely you would better serve in your research after replenishing your body with needed nutrients."

"I've already lost enough time." Bruce fired back instantly. "Parsons is still missing after almost two weeks. It's already bleak, but whatever it is that his kidnappers want from him is the only thing that could be keeping him alive. If he gives them what they want before I locate him, then that little girl loses a father on top of the trauma she's already been forced to deal with. Not to mention that there could potentially be a new danger for the world to deal with."

"While I am sorry that this poor child has experienced a traumatic event, I must implore that you to eat something." Alfred almost pleaded while simultaneously ordered, still not giving in on his position that Bruce's body required sustenance.

"Just put the food in a container, and I'll eat while heading into Gotham tonight." Bruce finally offered as a compromise. He knew that Alfred wouldn't be giving in to a simple no, and then he'd be forced to spend more wasted time arguing on top of everything else. He needed to find a lead to this case, and find it fast, and his compromise seemed to do the trick, as Alfred's response was to silently take the tray away. He was certain that some form of carrying case would soon be in it's place, but for now he could get back to focusing on the case.

Wonder Woman's search for the kidnappers hadn't been successful either unfortunately. With her search coming up empty and his leads dried up, Batman had reluctantly waited a few days before confronting the girl's mother in the hopes that she'd managed to glean something useful from her daughter. But just like every other lead, that avenue came up empty as well. The girl was just too traumatized by the situation to recall any really useful details about her captors or why they might've been after her father. All she seemed to recall was all the blood that her father had spilt while he was being beaten in front of her.

The girl couldn't even remember what the men were saying to her father while they were torturing him. That was a week ago, and now Batman found himself grasping at straws for any clues that would break open this case. He couldn't put his finger on it, but from what little information he had procured was giving him the feeling that this could potentially be the beginnings of a catastrophic event. After all, why someone would be going after a senior biochemist in such a malicious fashion would never be done with good intentions from whoever was behind it.

Adding to his frustration was the fact that Wonder Woman had continued trying to push her way into his investigation. He'd originally hoped that sending her off in search of the kidnappers would eventually cause her to move on to another mission out of sheer boredom, or that another mission would take precedence in her opinion. But she seemed determined to follow this investigation through to the end. It even got to the point where Batman almost wanted to give in and allow the Martian Justice League membership status as a sort of peace offering. Almost. He still had yet to perform his thorough background check on J'onn.

Little did Superman and Wonder Woman know that Flash had discreetly informed Batman of their intentions after Batman had intentionally stayed away from the next League meeting. That knowledge only added to his pile of work to be done soon, as he only had six days left to complete that before his original vote would be cast aside without cause. It was a clever plan that the Man of Steel had chosen to follow, and impressed the Dark Knight, but it would've been more impressive if Clark had actually come up with it on his own. It was then that an idea struck him where he might be able to perform two tasks at once. He quickly stood up and grabbed his cowl from the desktop before turning toward his sleek black jet.

~~ Watchtower ~~

Diana had just returned from a mission with the Flash. They had been called away because of a large earthquake that struck the eastern Asian continent rather hard. There were many injuries for the people to deal with, but with Flash's speed, and Diana's quick thinking, they were able to pull many out of a tall building before it collapsed as a result of the sustained damage to it's base. She'd thought about joining the speedster for a meal in the commissary, but glancing at a wall mounted clock provided her with the knowledge that she needed to contact a certain pointy eared teammate before he managed to sneak out into his city for the night.

Over the course of the last few days, she'd managed to whittle down the times when it was best to catch Batman for any updates to the case they'd been working together on. While she was happy that they'd found the girl relatively safe, she still wanted to do whatever she could to bring the father back safe as well. If for the girl's sake more than anything else. Whenever she thought back on it, she could still hear the cries from the girl as she took her to the authorities on that night. The girl desperately wanting to find her daddy and to stop the bad men from hurting him. It was clear to Diana that the girl loved her father very much, and so she willingly worked alongside the cold and calculating Bat even though it was more difficult than it should've been.

Diana knew that Batman preferred to work on his own, but she refused to allow that in this instance. He'd barged in uninvited to the city she was protecting and she would have nothing of his attempted dismissals. Her involvement in the search would only help in her opinion, regardless of what he thought. So when her search for the kidnappers ended with no leads, she resorted to repeatedly calling Batman. And calling him. And calling him. Eventually he finally responded to her, but only when she threatened to infiltrate Gotham's airspace while seeking out her own answers. He provided her with some of the files that he'd managed to get hold of from the father's work computer, and she'd meticulously went through them all, but didn't find anything that sent up any red flags. That left her to her current position, and now she wanted to know just where he was with the case.

Out of respect, Diana did wait until she was in her own personal quarters before she opened a line of communication to him, and after taking a seat at the edge of her bed, she enabled her communicator. "Wonder Woman to Batman."

After a few moments, the reluctant voice of the Bat finally crackled through. "Go ahead Wonder Woman."

"Any updates on the missing father in the Parsons case?" She asked, getting right to the point. This was also something she'd come to recognize over these few days. The Batman didn't socialize and would sooner cut you off over listening to anything he'd remotely consider to be rambling or pointless.

"No new leads to go on yet." Batman answered. "I'll let you know if anything changes on that front. But since you called, perhaps you could do me a favor."

Diana was instantly shocked that Batman would be willingly asking anything of her at all. Up to that point, with every step she'd had to fight, scratch, and claw until he'd eventually relent. "Of...of course, Batman." She eventually answered after picking her chin up off the floor. "What do you need?"

"Just to inform Superman that he should expect my report on the Martian within the next day or so." Batman replied, hardly hiding the self satisfied smile from the tone in his voice.

"Wait...How did you?" Diana started to question until she was cut off.

"You'd be surprised if you found out all that I'm aware of." Batman smugly responded. "Thanks for the help, and I'll be in touch. Batman out."

Diana quickly went from flabbergasted to infuriated. At being cut off, she pulled the ear piece out and threw it across the room with enough force that it broke her communicator into many small pieces. That pompous man had managed to get under her skin once more, and she quickly regretted it but more so for the fact that he'd surely find out when she had to fill out a requisition for a new ear piece. She released a frustrated breath to help calm herself, and then left her quarters in the direction of the communications sector of the tower. Perhaps she could locate a spare ear piece, and then head down to the training wing for a good stress relieving training session. She knew that if she didn't work out some of her aggression there, then a certain Bat would be in for a world of hurt once she tracked him down.

~~ Antarctica ~~

The Batwing came to a stop on top of a icy hill. Instantly he wondered what it was that would cause the Martian to isolate himself so much if he were truly wanting to help the world, but then his thoughts went back to some of the reasoning of why Clark had taken that initial step forward in protecting J'onn from the public. The public had been unwavering in the desire to lock the Martian away when he'd done nothing aside from making his presence known in order to help some innocent people that were in danger. It was a good quality to have for a hero, or perhaps for someone wanting to come off as a hero. But even so, if he truly wished to find acceptance in this world, then isolation wouldn't be the answer, regardless of initial acceptance or not.

It wouldn't be the first time that Batman had come across a character with seemingly selfless and good intentions, only to end up blindsided in the end. It was people like this that now gave him pause in areas such as with the proposed dealings of League membership being offered. Upon landing, he'd no more than opened the hatch to the Batwing before he could sense the feeling that he wasn't alone, and that meant the Martian was already aware of his uninvited visit. "We need to talk, J'onn." He called out, ending any speculation from either side about the awareness of the other's presence.

"What brings you here Batman?" J'onn responded as his corporeal form appeared through a snow bank before changing to solid right before Batman's very eyes.

"Time." Was Batman's quipped response. "I'm searching for a missing biochemist."

"And you've run out of leads." J'onn surmised. "How can I be of assistance?"

"His daughter." Batman answered. "She witnessed it, but can't bring herself to recall any details that might be useful. If I don't find a way to locate the father, she might never get to see him alive again."

"I will do what I can." J'onn said just before climbing into the cockpit of the Batwing and seating himself into the co-pilot's seat.

Batman was still incredibly uncomfortable with the situation, but time was really against him and he couldn't help this feeling in his gut that there was more to this case than met the eye. So he'd taken this leap of faith, unfortunately hoping that Superman's vouching for the Martian was with merit.

The flight back toward Gotham remained quiet for a good portion of the trip. Surprisingly, the Martian didn't so much as make a single peep, but after some time that notion began to grate on Batman's nerves. He wondered just why J'onn wasn't asking for any details about the case, and why the Martian was seemingly taking it on blind faith that he wouldn't just use this as a ruse to help the people incarcerate the Martian. It was then that he felt a slight pinching sensation in the left side of his head. It wasn't all that painful, and no where near to the level of what he'd even consider a minor headache. But it did trigger every warning in his mind. "Get. Out. Of. My head." He grated through clenched teeth, and instantly the pain vanished.

"I apologize Batman." J'onn called out from behind. "I didn't mean to intrude, but there was no more certain a way to discover the truth in your true reasoning for contacting me. You must understand my apprehension with the overall lack of acceptance of my being here."

"I can." Batman grunted. "But get in my head again, and I'll be the one that personally drops you off in a holding cell."

"Your reluctance of trust is indeed a wise policy to keep Batman." J'onn replied. "It's a policy that I too have had to resort to during my time on this planet. After all, can you of all people honestly blame me?"

"You've spoken to Kent." Batman deduced, and didn't wait for the Martian to respond. "It's true J'onn. I didn't vote for your inclusion into the Justice League. There's too much at stake to take such an uneducated risk without at least some form of research being done first."

"And this request you've made of me is to serve as at least a portion of that research in which you require." J'onn concluded.

"Unfortunately yes." Batman answered even though he knew that it wasn't needed. "I need to know more than the girl can recall from the trauma she experienced."

"There seems to be more to this than just a missing father." J'onn surmised, causing Batman to turn his head, looking back over his shoulder at his passenger. J'onn held up his hands in a surrendering gesture very quickly before he continued. "No, I didn't glean that information from your mind. I can hear the concern clearly in your voice. Also, as an act of faith. If you were to hum a musical tune in your mind, that would hinder a telepath's ability to read one's thoughts."

Batman eventually turned back to focus on the horizon ahead of him, and hummed a familiar musical number in his head as he started to compile some thoughts on what he'd learned so far about the Martian. So far he'd admitted to telepathy and mind reading, Batman already knew of his shape shifting capabilities from the situation where J'onn revealed himself to the world. And he obviously could travel through materials by shifting into a more corporeal state. If he were to turn out as a wolf in sheep's clothing, just that knowledge was enough to make him a formidable opponent. He also had to wonder just what else the Martian could do. There was already so much to process in just six more days, and he was beginning to believe that at best his report would be incomplete.

The remainder of the flight was fairly quiet. J'onn chose to look over at the ground below once they were below cloud level, watching as wooded land changed over to large metal structures as they entered into Gotham's air space. J'onn watched in awe as Batman traversed over or through rather his city. It was clear that Batman seemed to know every nook and cranny of this violence ravaged city as he swerved around taller buildings and didn't even circle around when he came to the mother's apartment building. This was indeed Batman's city, and there was no questioning that fact.

The jet hovered over the small apartment building as the canopy unlatched and popped open with a depressurizing hiss. Batman glanced back to his passenger after unstrapping himself. "No clear landing area close enough to here." He explained before leaping out over the canopy wall, and landing onto the rooftop with an amazing grace for a man of his size. J'onn followed down in more of a levitation than falling speed, Batman taking note of it as the Martian landed beside him before starting to make his way to the roof access door. Batman quickly blocked his path as J'onn reached for the door handle. At the Martian's confused look he decided to share his concerns. "She's just a child J'onn. It might be a good idea if you were to blend into the populous. Might also help with gaining the mother's cooperation as well."

"I understand Batman." J'onn replied without argument before shape shifting into a man with a detective badge showing. Batman couldn't complain about that. Appearing as a police officer would only help ease the concerns of the frazzled mother.

The two heroes made their way down three flights of stairs before Batman led J'onn down a hallway until he located the correct apartment number and knocked on the door. They waited for a few moments as they could hear some ruffling noises that indicated someone was home before the mother called out to them. "Who is it?" She questioned.

Without hesitation, Batman instantly replied. "GCPD ma'am."

He then pulled J'onn to the front where he was plainly visible in front of the peep hole. The Martian didn't question these movements, as it was Batman's city. Soon they could hear locks being undone and the door pulled open. "I'm sorry officer..." The mother started until she could see the visage of Gotham's vigilante standing beside the detective. "Oh..." Was all she could say at that moment.

"I'm sorry, but we need to speak with your daughter." Batman explained before moving forward and into the apartment despite the clear lack of invitation. "I know your child's been through a great deal, but her memories might be the only thing that can potentially save her father's life."

"I...I'm so...sorry, Batman." The mother apologized. "But the police have already tried, and she can't remember. I don't think she'll be able to offer you anything useful, and I don't want to put her through anymore than she's already had to deal with."

"J'onn will be able to help her with her memories." Batman explained. But at seeing the inherent protective nature of any loving mother, he knew that some delicacy was in order to speed the process. "I know what the police have come up with, but I give you my word that she won't be harmed in any way."

"What can this man do that the other officers couldn't." The mother asked.

"Read her thoughts." Batman offered simply.

"And just how exactly do you know that she won't be harmed?" The increasingly agitated mother questioned.

In response, J'onn's eyes began to glow, and the mother felt a warm sensation for a few moments before it disappeared. His eyes stopped glowing at the same time, and the mother backed herself up against a wall. "What...what did you just do?"

"You still love your ex husband and want very badly to see him returned unharmed, but are conflicted about how much to risk of your child in any attempt to save him." J'onn answered. "I assure you madam that I can gently probe your daughter's mind just as I have yours without harming her. I assume you felt the sensation?"

The mother nodded in confirmation, and upon seeing this, J'onn continued. "If at any moment, you feel as though your daughter is in pain or distress, at your command I will cease and we will leave without confrontation."

Batman wasn't happy about that offer, but the mother eventually eased away from the wall, and silently went back to get her daughter from the bedroom. He shot a disapproving glare over to the Martian while they were alone, but J'onn merely ignored it for the most part due to his confidence that no harm would come to the girl.

Soon the mother returned with daughter in tow. She briefly explained what the officer was going to do, but the daughter was only focused on the black armor clad man standing off to the side. Eventually the other two recognized this and glanced over toward the Dark Knight. In a small, shaky voice, the girl eventually broke the silence as well as some of the tension from the room. "Are...are you going to save my daddy?" The little girl asked. "You and the pretty lady that saved me?"

What Batman did next would've knocked the socks off of any Justice League member if they'd witnessed it themselves. He stepped forward and knelt down in front of the small child, and switched off the voice disruption device. In a soft baritone voice that caught the mother completely off guard, Batman spoke reassuringly to the small girl. "We're doing everything that we can to bring your daddy back safe and sound Sara." He told her. "But we need just a little bit more help from you if you can be a brave girl little girl for just a few moments. Can you do that for us?"

The girl initially looked around to her mother and Batman thought that she was going to say no, but she looked back into the lenses of his cowl and nodded affirmatively. At that point, J'onn knelt down next to Batman before slowly reaching out his hands and placing them onto each of her temples. "I want you to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and relax." J'onn instructed. Once the girl's eyes closed, his began to glow again.

J'onn found his mentally projected form inside Sara's mind. There was indeed some damage from the traumatic experience that she had suffered, but in some time and with the right influences around her, he believed that she would eventually recover from it. He knew though that time was limited, and began seeking through the girl's memories.

Soon J'onn found where it began at the restaurant that Sara's father always took her to when he picked her up for his visitation. She was so happy to be with her father, that she didn't notice how two men had come up to stand behind the booth she was seated in. That was until she witnessed for the first time fear on her father's face. Immediately after that, her happiness ended. No words were spoken as her dad got up from his seat and had her get up despite her protests about not being finished. All he would say to her was that they had to leave.

Not but mere seconds after the door closed to her father's car, one of the men smacked her father in the back of the head with something hard. That same man got into the driver seat of her daddy's car while the other man dragged her dad into another car close by. Sara was petrified by fear. She couldn't move, and couldn't even think to try making any escape attempt.

The next memory was of her father being savagely beaten right in front of her even though he already looked like he had taken a beating before. One man was shouting something about time being up, and where's what daddy had promised them. J'onn tried to get a better look and the man, but he'd been smart enough to wear a mask.

The last memory was of being thrown into the trunk of her father's car. There were some bumps as the car moved along, including a few that basically threw her body up into the air. The next thing she saw though was the house that Batman and Wonder Woman had eventually found her in. When J'onn reached that memory, he stopped peering into her mind and released her head.

"Thank you Sara for all your help." J'onn said before standing to his feet.

"Are you going to save daddy now?" Sara asked.

"I wish I could promise you more Sara." Batman said. "But all I can promise is that we'll do everything that we can to save him." With that said, Batman too stood to his feet while re-enabling his voice modifier before turning to Sara's mother. "Thank you." He said to both of them before exiting the apartment with J'onn following closely behind.

J'onn remained quiet as he followed Batman back up to the roof and then back into the cockpit of the Batwing. He was wondering when Batman would ask him what memories he'd gleaned from the girl's mind, but when the jet began to move from it's hovering position, he noticed how rigid Batman currently was. "You don't believe we will be able to save the girl's father, do you?" He eventually asked.

"What did you see?" Batman asked in return, avoiding the Martian's question.

J'onn relayed all that he'd managed to see, but didn't think that it would be much good. Batman never spoke to him as he shared what little information he could, but when he realized that they didn't seem to be returning to the Arctic, he became curious. "Where are you taking me?" He asked.

"Back to D.C." Batman answered simply.

"But Sara didn't reveal anything that would help you to ascertain her father's location." J'onn surmised.

"She gave me enough to get a good start." Batman replied. "The large bumps she felt is something. The amount of time that transpired will help me locate where they were coming from. You said she saw her father in person. If I can triangulate how long she was in the trunk of her father's car, then I can narrow down likely locations where they might've been. You're coming with me because I need your eyes to tell me when we're in the right place."

* * *

A/N: Thank you for being so patient with me while personal matters had to take precedence. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to add chapters every couple of weeks, but know that I haven't given up on this, or any of my other unfinished fics. Please R&R. I hope that you all enjoy this latest installment.


	4. Chapter 4: From Under A Rock

Chapter 4: From Under A Rock

* * *

Batman had returned to the rescue site of Sara in Washington D.C. Out of habit, he performed a quick re-canvasing of the area in the miniscule chance that his initial investigation might have missed something. J'onn followed quietly alongside him the entire time, giving him the freedom to handle things within his comfort zone. He also was still feeling out the black clad vigilante from Gotham. So far he had little doubts that the man's conviction toward helping others was as unwavering and just as any other being he'd encountered, but he couldn't help the uneasy feeling that being around the Batman still managed to cultivate within him.

As he came to the apparent conclusion that nothing had been initially missed, Batman finally moved over to the location where he'd originally located the vehicle that was used in transporting Sara. "The kidnappers wouldn't have wanted to stop with the girl tied up in the trunk." He spoke aloud to no one in particular before he flipped open his right hand gauntlet and began typing in commands. Soon a 3D image appeared, revealing a map of the city. "How long do you believe the girl was in the trunk while they were moving her to this location?"

J'onn thought hard about the memories he'd pulled from the little girl's mind. Thinking back to all of the shifting from turns, the stops and starts likely from traffic lights or stop signs that she'd felt along the way. "I believe no more than twenty to thirty minutes." He eventually concluded.

Batman looked over the map intricately while typing in some more codes and commands. Occasionally a red line would appear and move throughout the streets before disappearing completely from view. What became evident quickly to the Martian was that the lines all began from the same point on the map. From that he was able to deduce very easily that the Dark Knight was attempting to back trace the path that had been taken, and he waited until three lines remained on the map instead of disappearing. "According to the computer analysis, the only feasible routes that they could've taken the girl through are one of these three." Batman offered.

J'onn glanced over the map and quickly found the reasoning for the potential routes. "The only ones where the girl would've felt the distinct bumps." He concluded. "Distinct bumps caused by passing over railroad tracks."

"And of those three possibilities, only one is feasible with buildings as large as you described from the girl's memories." Batman continued as he selected the route that he was describing.

"Hopefully we will find more information into the father's likely whereabouts." J'onn added, only to see Batman glance over briefly at him before turning and walking away in the direction of the Batwing's location. J'onn sighed as he found that he still felt so confused about humans, and this one in particular. Until now he'd never come across one that could compartmentalize things so efficiently. He knew from their meeting with the little girl that Batman was emotionally engaged in this, but he seemed to refuse the hope of thinking that they could save the father before whatever he was being used for came to its end, and thus his usefulness.

J'onn didn't stand still for long, also knowing that Batman would most certainly not wait for him to climb into the jet. In fact, he had the distinct feeling that Batman almost would prefer it that way if he did have any possible reason to end their partnered investigation. But J'onn still wanted to prove that he was a trustworthy teammate. He believed in what the Justice League stood for, and could certainly help them substantially if he were admitted membership. So, following Batman and abiding his seemingly strict rules was a small price to pay in the end if it would gain him even a measure of the man's trust.

After making his way through the night D.C. sky, Batman put the jet down as close as he could to the likely location of the building where the girl had last seen her father. He'd just pulled up some schematics of the buildings surrounding the area when any good fortune he thought he'd been receiving came to an abrupt halt. "Damn it." He muttered quietly before closing the panel on his gauntlet, simultaneously causing the 3D image to fade away. "What are you doing here?" He asked as he stood up straight and draped his cape around himself completely.

"I think given the circumstances that I should be the one asking you that." Wonder Woman stated as she floated down from above them, firing an accusing glare in the direction of Batman. "We've gone over this before, and I'm sure you can recall the conversation. If you want others to respect your proposed boundaries Batman, then you must first respect their boundaries. You're in my city unannounced yet again, and I'd wager that it has to do with the case we were both working on. Which also implies that you've blatantly kept from informing me of the investigation's progress. Not to mention that after your lambasting all of the Justice League members on the need to trust J'onn before admittance, here you are already working with him."

J'onn stole a glance in the direction of the visibly irritated woman standing before Batman and himself. He'd not realized that Batman had been apparently stepping on Wonder Woman's toes, and was about to issue an apology for his involvement at the very least until Batman's agitated voice snapped back at her. "One, I haven't found anything yet to report on. This is just a theory or perhaps even just a wild goose chase. Two, any chance of saving the girl's father before its too late is surely almost up, and checking in to see if you're available just wastes time. Especially since I know that I move faster on my own. And three, I wouldn't have involved J'onn, but considering your boyfriend added a stipulation with a truncated timetable to bypass the initial voting result that denied J'onn membership to the League, I was forced to begin my analysis on him before the next League meeting in three days. So I had no choice but to involve him."

Diana's eyes widened, especially at Superman being called her boyfriend a second time as well as the knowledge of their plan to gain J'onn admittance into the League. She now found herself wondering just how much Batman did know about all that was going on with the League, and how did he know it? He'd definitely figured out about her relationship with Superman, otherwise he wouldn't have brought it up a second time, but did he also figure out that she was the one who made the suggestion of how to bypass his denial vote? She opened her mouth but didn't have the chance to respond as Batman had already stormed away from her and pulled a vent cover of an air duct away, jumping into the building ventilation system. J'onn stood silently for a moment as Diana attempted to pick her jaw up off the ground, but soon also descended below to join Batman. The only difference in his movements being that he chose to phase through the roof and go straight into the main floor of the building.

Changing his corporeal state as he touched down, J'onn began looking around the area as he waited for the other two to join him. He could sense that they were the only three individuals in the building at the moment, so he looked around casually, but it didn't take long in coming to the conclusion that this building was indeed the one where little Sara had last seen her father. "This is the correct place." He announced.

Soon off to the side of the same area, Batman had joined the Martian on the ground floor. J'onn motioned to a specific area, and Batman started looking for any evidence or clues. It didn't take long for Wonder Woman to join them either, and when she did she found J'onn watching Batman, who was digging through the drawers of a work bench. On top of the bench she could see evidence of some broken beakers and test tubes, but no real signs of the father. There was no blood on the ground like she'd anticipated finding. "Was this where they were holding Parsons?" She asked.

Batman seemed to ignore her question, instead continuing to dig through anything he could find to aid in the investigation. J'onn inwardly sighed as he sensed the growing frustration coming from the Amazon. This wasn't the time for another confrontation. "This is the correct location." He answered in an attempt to keep the peace. "The child last witnessed her father at this very workbench."

"So, she remembered?" Diana asked with some hopefulness in her voice, praying that the trauma hadn't been too catastrophic for the child.

"Not exactly." Batman responded as he moved over to a nearby trashcan and began picking through it.

"What did you do to her?" Diana accused, once again becoming agitated at the black clad vigilante. Why couldn't he just answer a damn question?

"Batman requested that I use my abilities to reach into the little girl's mind." J'onn explained, only to have that same ire begin being focused toward him. Instantly he raised his hands as a symbol of surrender, and when Diana gave a hint of pause in her aggressive stance, he continued. "She did not feel any more anguish than before, I can assure you. I also took care to ensure that her repressed memories would remain so until she is actually ready to face them."

"I...wasn't aware that you could do that J'onn." Diana commented, surprised at what the Martian explained what he could apparently do.

Soon after, she could've sworn that she heard Batman snorting and mumbling something under his breath. She couldn't be certain, but with her enhanced hearing she believed she heard him uttering something along the lines of being uneducated and League membership. That was more than enough for her frustration to begin boiling over once again. "If you have something to say Batman, be a man and come out with it instead of mumbling." She heatedly fired at him.

Not hesitating an instant, Batman stood up from picking through the trashcan and spun around to face her directly. "What I said was that you all wonder why I voted against his admittance into the League." He heatedly shot back at her as he pointed in the direction of J'onn. "You know next to nothing about him, and yet still are freely giving him passage into the League without performing any due diligence. No background checks at all. With that level of blind faith, we may as well offer the Joker membership into the League."

"I know when I'm standing before a fellow brother or sister in the fight for peace that this world sorely needs." Diana retorted vehemently.

"Fine!" Batman responded in a hot and raised voice. "I don't have time for this. You want him into the League so badly, so blindly, then you can vote him in for all I care. I have more important things to do than to be babysitting a bunch of overpowered neanderthals."

Batman, having heard all he was willing to, quickly spun around and headed for the nearest exit. Wonder Woman began to follow, not finished with the argument nor at being insulted, but J'onn grabbed her arm to halt her. Her eyes shot straight to J'onn's hand that was still holding her by the arm, but surprisingly she didn't pull away when she looked up into the Martian's eyes. She could see that he was only looking for the best interest of everyone at the moment, and decided to hear him out. "Batman has a wise policy on trust, Diana." J'onn offered. "However, in coming to this building, he was already prepared to accept and even possibly endorse my admittance to the League."

"How do you know?" She asked.

"I could sense it from him." J'onn answered simply.

"Then why?" She questioned, confused by his words if Batman were to be for the offer of J'onn joining the League.

"Because even though you may have been correct with my intentions, so was he with needing to perform at least some form of a background check." J'onn explained. "Already the Justice League is compiled of a seemingly invulnerable Kryptonian, an incredibly powerful and immortal Amazon, a Green Lantern with the most powerful weapon in the universe, and the fastest man alive. Not to mention a cybernetic enhanced man with alien technology, and now another super powered alien from Mars that until recently, no one on this planet knew much if anything at all about. You must look at the group as a whole as well as the individual that is potentially being offered membership. Especially with each added individual that has extra physical abilities, the League becomes much more powerful, and has already become the strongest force on the planet."

"I believe that to be a good thing J'onn, not something to be looked upon negatively." Wonder Woman pointed out.

"But what if in the future without a thorough background check, a new member is granted inclusion into the League and they possess an ability to gain control over the other members with a nefarious agenda in mind?" J'onn rhetorically asked. "Then what would the rest of the world do against the strongest force in the world?"

Diana sat on that thought for a moment. She had to admit that the arrogant man might actually have a valid point with requiring extensive background checks, but he still could've raised those concerns to the rest of the League in a more complete and concise manner when the initial vote had taken place. He wasn't entirely in the right based on his own words or lack thereof, but still she felt that she owed some form of an apology to him. And she started off to catch him, but then heard the Batwing tearing through the night sky. An attempt at reaching him through the communicators also failed, and she knew that he wouldn't activate it again for the rest of the night at the least.

Batman was still fuming inside of the cockpit as he took flight. Going off of what could only be considered an intuition, he was absolutely flabbergasted by Wonder Woman's willingness to trust so blindly. Granted in this instance with J'onn, she and the rest of the League had turned out to be correct, but still his point was valid. No one should be admitted access so easily.

That however was not the topic for which Batman needed to focus on at the moment. He'd dealt with it enough for the time being. Instead he needed to get back to finding Parsons, and discovering what those responsible for capturing him were up to. So, he pulled out a couple pieces of paper that he'd collected from the trash bin and held them up to inspect them further. He knew when he'd spotted them initially that they were sales receipts, but Wonder Woman's membership granting ignorance had interrupted him from reviewing them at that time.

Upon taking a closer look, now Batman had something to go off of. It would've brought a smile to his face just because of the fact that he'd managed to rid himself of Wonder Woman's interference into his investigation had it not been for the location of where the purchases had been made. But there was no avoiding that if he wanted to find answers, so he changed the direction of his flight path and started heading in the direction of Metropolis, and unfortunately a likely confrontation with the Man of Steel.

* * *

Superman was perched atop the Daily Planet. He'd only finished a report a few minutes earlier when Diana had reached out to him over the communicator requesting to speak with him. Fortunately when the call came in, Lois Lane had just left his desk, having discovered a hot lead for a story of her own that she was working on. Otherwise she might have noticed the slight flinch he made upon hearing the alarm beeping to indicate he had an incoming transmission.

Upon reaching the rooftop, he thought that Diana would merely continue the conversation over than comm. link, but was surprised to see her approaching. Noticing the somewhat troubled look on her face, Superman barely managed to wait until she touched down before he initiated the conversation. "What's going on?" He asked quickly. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing really wrong Kal." Diana admitted, adding a smile to her features. "I just needed get some things off my chest, and felt that the communicator wasn't going to be sufficient. I really wanted to see you in person as well. I hope that I didn't interrupt you from anything important."

"No, actually I just finished before you called." Superman offered. He could see that she wasn't being herself, and wanted to reassure her that he was there for her, no matter what the topic was that she felt the need to bring up. "So I've got all night if you need it."

Diana gave Kal a thankful look before she took in a deep breath and just blurted out the most prevalent part for her impromptu visit first. "Batman is fine with permitting J'onn admittance into the League."

Superman would've smiled in his apparent victory over the all paranoid one had he not noticed how Diana didn't seem to be all that thrilled with the news that she shared. "I thought you agreed that J'onn deserved to be in the League?" He questioned, wondering if her mind had for some reason changed her opinion on that matter.

"No, I do Kal, I do still agree that J'onn deserves to be a member of the League." Diana responded before pausing briefly. "It's just that...that I realized Batman was also right in initially denying him membership as well." This struck Kal as if he'd been slapped in the face, but before he could speak up, Diana continued. "As you know, Batman and I have been investigating a crime that had linked our cities together. It turns out that Batman has also been performing a background check on J'onn, and in part that was due to our plans to gain him inclusion into the League."

Superman nodded in understanding, not entirely surprised that the Bat had figured out about their plan. He continued to listen as Diana went on to explain how and why Batman had brought J'onn in on the case. And how Diana had witnessed with her own eyes an ability that J'onn possessed in which she previously wasn't aware of. Then she explained how J'onn agreed with Batman's reluctance, and shared his explanation as to why. When she finally finished with her story, he could tell that she felt badly for letting Batman go without admitting that she was partially wrong to criticize him and his ways. "Maybe from now on, we should think about the potential consequences going forward." He offered. "It doesn't hurt us to be absolutely sure of who it is we admit into the League after all. Maybe even see if Batman would be willing..."

When Superman trailed off, Diana looked into his eyes questioningly. She could see what appeared to be a concentrated look, but it was pointed out into the distance as his brow furrowed. "What is it Kal?" She eventually asked.

Another couple of seconds went by in silence, but then Superman finally looked back to her. "It looks like you're not the only one that has an uninvited guest coming into their city."

Diana abruptly turned in the direction that Superman had been looking. "Batman?" She questioned.

Superman gave no verbal confirmation, only taking off in flight and heading into the same direction that he'd been looking in. Diana initially thought about calling it a night as she hadn't even finished with her sweeps over her own city, but her curiosity for why Batman might be in Metropolis got the better of her. So she quickly followed through the air after Superman.

Upon flying into Superman's city, Batman had initially thought about landing his jet before abruptly changing his mind. He'd dealt with enough Meta's for one day, and if he could use the noise of his jet to keep Superman off his trail just for a few minutes, he might just have enough time to get the information that he needed and hopefully get out. Just from the receipts that he'd found, he was able to figure out that someone had come from Metropolis, and the time stamp on the receipt gave him another useful tidbit of information. He had a smoker that'd bought some cigarettes from a gas station, and upon hacking into the surveillance system he was able to figure out who the person was.

One Danny Hayes, known aliases of "Biggie D" and "Big Dan". His claim to fame was more of being hired muscle for various robberies, some mob collection jobs, and the occasional B & E. The most telling point was that he hadn't recently been employed by anyone in D.C. at all. In fact most of his jobs were located in his home town. He'd managed to avoid jail time up to this point, nothing being stuck on him as the prosecutors were more interested in information that he offered. So far none of it turned up much in the form of serving justice, but since he'd chosen to add kidnapping to his resume, today that failure of justice was about to meet it's end.

Batman moved forward silently as he approached Dan's apartment complex. Getting inside was easy enough as the security system on the back door had been busted quite some time ago. Presumably by the lesser quality people that chose this establishment to reside in. Once he reached Dan's door, he knelt down and pulled out a small fiber optic cable as he attached it to his gauntlet computer. A video screen appeared once the connection was established, and it revealed the son of a bitch that he was looking for lazily plopped down on a couch with a beer in his hand.

Batman waited there watching silently for a few moments, making as certain as possible that there'd be no surprises, and once he was confident that Big Dan was alone he disconnected the cable and stood back up, bracing himself to kick the door down.

The next thing that Big Dan saw was his front door exploding into pieces as it came off its hinges. A dark figure seemingly glided into the apartment like a demonic wraith, only adding to Dan's surprise with an increasing level of fear. He'd never come across anything like this before, and wasn't sure exactly what to do about it at first. He wanted to flee initially, but his only exit was behind the masked demon. It became quickly apparent that if he wanted out, he'd have to fight his way past this thing first.

Standing up from the couch, Big Dan chucked the half finished beer bottle at the figure, only to see it raise one of its wings to deflect the projectile. Little did he think it knew, but at the same time he was pulling his gun out from the back of his waistband. With the gun firmly in his grip; he swung his arm forward to point and fire at this demon, but just as he brought it forward to take aim, something sharp and black had stuck into the flesh on his hand causing him to drop his weapon. Before he could even look down to see where his gun landed, the demon had covered the distance between the two of them, and now was directly in front of him. "Wha, what are you?" He managed to squeak out.

"I'm Batman." Came the low growling reply, followed swiftly by an uppercut to his jaw that caused Big Dan's world to turn black.

* * *

A smack to the face revived Big Dan. He was groggy at best, but awake again. And...as he quickly came to realize, hanging upside down. He screamed in sheer horror from the view below as the once believed ghost story of Gotham reached out and grabbed him by his hair. "I've got questions, and you're going to tell me what I want to know." Batman growled as he pulled until he was face to upside down face. "Where is David Parsons?"

"Wh...Who?" Big Dan questioned, absolute fear etched clearly in his voice. Batman sneered even though it felt more like a victorious grin to him. The man was more likely to wet himself before lying, and that was precisely the position he wanted Big Dan to be in.

"Washington D.C." Batman growled. "You were there. I know it. Play dumb with me or lie to me again, and the next thing you're going to do is meet the sidewalk below you before I ask again. David. Parsons. You were involved in taking him and his daughter. Where was he taken to?"

"I...I don't know man." Dan quivered before turning to begging. "Please man, don't drop me. I just took the girl like I was told."

"I want names Danny Hayes." Batman barked. "Everyone that was there with you. Who you were working for. Everything."

Dan was a quivering mess. Coming to it face to face with the fabled Batman of Gotham City was so much worse than any story or rumor he'd ever heard before. Even after he'd given the Bat every detail he could think of, instead of letting him go, Batman seemed to become even more angry with him. Batman let go of his hair, allowing him to swing back and forth over the sidewalk. "One last thing Danny." The Batman sneered, grabbing the cowering goon's attention. "Try kidnapping a child or their parents again and I hear about it, what happens to you tonight will be a pleasure cruise."

With that said, Batman then did the last thing that Danny expected and released the line. He felt that split second of pure terror just before gravity did its thing and started pulling him to the ground. Danny began to scream, but his mind taken all the stress that it could as he blacked out once again thinking that he'd never live to see another day.

Superman had actually arrived and saw Batman releasing the line, and he swept down catching Big Dan as he was plummeting to the ground. Instantly furious about Batman's actions in his town, he floated up to the rooftop only to find that Diana had followed him and was already on the rooftop next to Batman. "What the hell do you think you're doing here Br...Batman." Superman scolded as a disappointed parent would in their child, and only minutely recognizing that he'd nearly slipped and given away Batman's secret identity.

"Getting information." Batman curtly responded, letting the near slip of the tongue slide for the moment.

"You could've killed him." Superman continued.

"Not likely." Batman quickly answered. He was going to leave it at that, but could quickly tell that he was already pushing Superman past the point of pissed. "The line is 1,000 pound test and twenty feet shorter than the building's height. There's even an elastic fabric woven into it that provides some give when it's pulled taut. The most he'd have is a dislocated hip and ankle. And if you ask me, that's short on what he actually deserves considering everything he's gotten away with so far."

"And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Superman seethed. His patience nearly spent on this evening already. Batman pondered just what Superman would do in this instance, but showed no remorse for his actions, nor fear of the potential repercussions. Upon getting no answer, Superman finally sighed and gave in. Even though Batman knew that he stood absolutely no chance, he also wasn't afraid of the Kryptonian in the least, no matter how angry or large a threat he could issue. "Any more of your information needed here? I'm not about to let you continue your form of justice here."

"No." Batman replied before turning to Wonder Woman and relenting slightly with some more details. "Back in D.C. I know of two others involved that have previous residences there."

"The Parsons case?" Wonder Woman asked, and received a confirming nod.

"The piece of trash that Superman is holding onto gave them up before he passed out." Batman explained. "And obviously wasn't quiet enough to keep you two away."

"Trying to evade detection with your jet was pretty clever, but your methods are pretty easy to distinguish. "Superman commented with an upward turn of his lips before turning serious again. "You need to bring this case before the League Batman. You've already stretched out into two cities now that are protected by other heroes. That's outside Gotham's jurisdiction, and we have a right to be involved now. Especially if you're willing to bring in other outside influences to help."

Batman glanced over in Wonder Woman's direction for a split second, knowing full well what Superman had meant. "So, you told him." He quickly deduced before returning his attention to the Man of Steel. "Fine. But not until the next League meeting."

"Unless something comes up of importance or that you can't handle on your own." Superman interjected.

"There won't be." Batman retorted, half daring Superman to say something more about his abilities or lack thereof in the reporter's opinion.

"Well, since you are heading back to my city and this is a case that I've already been involved with, at the very least you should allow me to accompany you for this part of the investigation." Wonder Woman interjected as an attempt to relieve the growing tension between the two males. Batman looked like he was about to blow his top for a moment, but eventually relented. Superman meanwhile had backed off almost instantly, apparently agreeing with the compromise after the mere suggestion of it.

"Agreed." Both men said in unison before they each turned and headed in opposite directions until Batman paused. "Take Hayes to the authorities." He announced over his shoulder. "He was involved in the kidnapping of the little girl."

* * *

In an old palace, a man was seated in a room adorned in what was fashioned as a throne room. He was soaking in the atmosphere from his seat on the throne. This was where he rightfully belonged. A king amongst men. He reveled in how that would feel until an armed man opened a door to the room and walked up to the throne before kneeling. "I apologize for the interruption sir, but I come with news." The guard offered.

"Go ahead." The man responded, only slightly displeased by the interruption.

"We've dumped the body back into his home as you requested sir." The guard announced. "We've also received reports from our surveillance, and the one known as Batman seems to be getting closer to discovering what happened with the professor. If we don't do something soon, he may be able to trace everything back to you sir."

"Seek out the hired pawns that were involved and silence them immediately." The man ordered. "Reach out to our other partner. Her involvement was an expected contingency should the Bat get involved before Phase I of my plans are ready. Since we've only begun to test the pathogen, I must know of it's effectiveness before we allow Batman or the Justice League to become involved. When you make contact, I must speak with her before she is let loose on the world. She may serve to help in an important phase of the testing process without actually being aware of it. Also it's time to begin Phase II."

"As you command." The guard replied before bowing his head and leaving to do his master's bidding.

The man waited until he was completely alone once again before turning to a wall and staring upon a medallion that was mounted at its center. "Soon father." The man said aloud. "Soon I will be able to take my place at your side. Just as it always should've been."

* * *

A/N: So...any guesses as to who's calling the shots? 5 points to the one that can correctly guess the bad guy. CrazyP is out as we already discussed and agreed on who it would be. Let's see the reviews. They keep me motivated. : )


	5. Chapter 5: Knee Deep

Chapter 5: Knee Deep

A/N: I'd first like to thank DDLo18, Skilgannon, BigBoyMan, SoresuMakashi, TheMoltenHeart, Mechalover, , and the three other guests for the reviews. I saw some interesting guesses as to who the main antagonist is, but no correct answers as of yet. We're getting closer to the big reveal, but not yet. Hope you enjoy this update. Please don't forget to feed the author. He loves reviews as a delicious main course, trust me, I know the guy. If I don't get another chapter out, I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

* * *

"I'd first like to congratulate J'onn on his admittance into the Justice League." Superman announced as the League status meeting got under way. There was a round of applause from those who were happy J'onn had managed to get past the main hurdle better known as Batman.

The Martian nodded in appreciation before taking the seat that had been supplied for him at the conference table. He'd noted how Superman had made little mention of Batman's performing a background check on him before his membership offer had been officially approved, but also quickly noticed how Batman didn't seem to care much about that either. But that was only until the short round of applause came to an end, and Diana stood up to speak. "Like everyone, I agree that it is good news for the Justice League to have someone such as J'onn joining us. However that being said, I believe that in the future we should refrain from such an uneducated offer being made to other potential League members."

Upon hearing that suggestion, some grumbling began to growl around the table, and from two individuals more so than the rest. It especially came from Aquaman, with him quietly suggesting that Batman must've somehow influenced Wonder Woman's opinion to make her say such a thing. That was when Superman chose to speak up. "Diana's right." He announced and waited until the grumbling halted before continuing. "We've been fortunate that everyone to this point has all wanted the same things for the world, but with us growing in strength as a group, it may be better if we were to show more caution when admitting members into the League. There's nothing wrong with making certain just who it is that we allow into these walls beforehand."

J'onn glanced around the table, taking in the body language of the others upon being presented with this suggestion. Green Lantern was the other that had been grumbling alongside Aquaman, but now he seemed to be indifferent about the suggestion. Flash and Cyborg had remained quiet for the most part ever since Diana had spoken up. He couldn't tell if they were in agreement in their silence, or just didn't have anything to add to the grumbling duo off to their right. But that only lasted a few moments before one of them spoke up. "If this is an official motion to better investigate potential Justice League members, then I'd like to second it." Flash stated.

The two previously grumbling members became completely silent upon hearing that, and when Superman chose to bring the topic up for a vote, it was surprisingly unanimous in favor of being ratified. At that instance, Diana made it a point to glance over at Batman. Unsurprisingly, he was seemingly a man devoid of emotion. She couldn't tell if he was excited to see that another of his paranoid protocols was going to be employed going forward, or if he was possibly upset to see that it had taken this long for them to act upon it. Times like these caused her to wonder if he really was human after all. She couldn't fathom how a mortal man could react so little to anything at times, especially when she considered that he was the only mortal she'd come across with that ability so far.

For now though, the curiosity of Batman's actual designation of species would have to wait. J'onn's admittance had become the start of new topics, and Superman had already mandated to Batman that he had to share with the rest of the League about the case that he and Diana had been investigating. It did surprise her when Superman glanced over at the Bat, and his immediate willingness to speak up as he stood with his hands placed onto the conference table. "For the past few weeks, I've been investigating what was initially believed to be just a random child abduction." He said as he began to recount the case from almost the very beginning.

Wonder Woman paid close attention as Batman detailed his justification behind traveling to Washington D.C., and eventually what had brought him to Metropolis. In fact, she found that he wasn't leaving out anything really pertinent. The only thing that could be considered large that he neglected to bring up was J'onn's involvement with the case. But she decided that little trinket held small to no value to the actual topic. He'd been detailed enough with everything else and that made it seem insignificant to the entirety of the case. Realizing this, she chose not to interrupt him, as it would only throw the topic of discussion off point.

"I believe that there might be more to this than what there appears to be." Batman said in closing, sharing his concerns. "These men went to a lot of trouble to get total cooperation, and with Parsons being a biochemist, I'll let you imagine just what potential there could be for trouble." He looked around the table after having finished and complied with the mandate to share what he'd been working on. Everyone seemed to be taking in the information for the moment, and he took his seat as he wasn't about to put up a fight should anyone question if the League should get involved. In fact, he was hoping that they would question and decide not to. Then he could get back to investigating his way.

Aquaman was surprisingly the first one to speak up. "Have you at least discovered why they went after this Parsons?"

Damn it was Batman's first thought. He'd really hoped hearing the King of Atlantis piping up would be at best filled with disinterest like it usually was with his investigations that happened to leak into League business. "Ease of access as well as available leverage were two key factors." Batman explained. "Parsons previously worked in a similar position for the government. His job there was to create bioweapons and then cures for them in the hopes of staying out in front of other countries that are working with bioterrorism agents as we speak."

"So Parsons used to develop weapons for the government?" Flash questioned in a semi disbelieving fashion. "Why would he quit then? I'd assume that position would pay pretty well."

"It did, but it also took away from the time he could spend with his daughter." Batman responded. "That was more important to him, and that was why whoever these people are took the girl. She was all the leverage that they needed."

"But you and Diana found the girl already." Green Lantern added. "If they don't have her anymore, then why wouldn't Parsons just stop giving them whatever it is that they want from him? Or wouldn't they have at least made another attempt to get her back?"

"With how much time has already passed, it is already likely that Parsons has outlived his usefulness." J'onn chimed in, surprising some of those at the table.

"How much time has gone by since the professor went missing?" Aquaman questioned as he'd not been paying enough attention when originally being briefed by Batman.

"It's already been over two weeks." Diana answered. "And if these people have already gotten what they needed for him, then the little girl would only be a priority if she'd seen one or more of their faces. She's already informed the authorities that she never saw any of them without their masks on."

"This case should be considered a League matter now." Superman announced. "With the potential for danger here as well as the effect being spread across multiple cities already, we need to take this as a potential threat."

"What about the usual suspects?" Flash suggested. "Are any of them a possibility?"

"With as quiet as this has been, whoever is calling the shots definitely has to be powerful and influential." Superman assumed. "What about Ra's, Batman? I remember instances where you've crossed paths with him before, and the majority of his plans were large scaled."

"While I haven't completely ruled him out yet, I don't believe he's involved with this." Batman explained. "Ra's isn't the type of man that will to answer to others, and this doesn't feel like one of his plans. Also there's the fact that he usually doesn't outsource when he can simply rely on his followers to do his bidding. However you are correct, whoever this is would have to be powerful and influential, and there's only so many threats out there that fit that description."

"So let me get this straight." Green Lantern chimed in. "We've got a missing biochemist who's likely already served his purpose, and we'll probably find him face down in the gutter somewhere. The only witness we have didn't see anyone's faces, and you haven't found any clues that will help us narrow down the search. Not to mention the fact that we're basing this case on an assumption by Spooky over there." He said while gesturing over to Batman briefly. "That's not exactly a lot to go on."

"No it isn't, but it's all we have right now." Diana replied.

"So where do we start?" Flash asked.

"D.C. and Metropolis." Batman answered before passing out pertinent documents to each member at the table. "This is a list of people with addresses who Danny Hayes was working with, and he was involved. One of them has to have more information than Hayes did. From the list he gave me, I was able to find out where each of them tends to spend their free time when not on a job. We need to find them, take them into custody, and I'll get answers from them."

"This isn't Gotham, Batman." Superman intervened. "That stunt you pulled on Hayes falls a lot closer to torture than interrogating."

Oh if only the big man in blue knew just to what lengths Bruce would and had already gone to before in order to get the answers that he needed. But still, he reluctantly had to agree. The League was much more public than his preferred method of lurking in the shadows of Gotham. Over time, it had become a place where people would willingly turn a blind eye just for a sliver of peace at night. As long as the scum of the earth lived after he was done with them, that was normally good enough for him. Sometimes a body cast was the only way to offer Gotham any real sense of peace. However with this case now becoming a League matter, he knew that he had to work with more restraint.

"Fine." Batman acquiesced before getting up to take his leave. He had an investigation to continue.

The rest of the League remained silent until the doors slid closed behind the Dark Knight, and then Wonder Woman took it upon herself to divvy up the list that Batman had provided. When the meeting finally concluded, she and Superman were going to head back to their respective cities. Flash, and Green Lantern would be with Diana in D.C., leaving Cyborg, Aquaman, Shazaam, and J'onn to team with Superman in heading to Metropolis. Using pure logic, Diana assumed that Batman would be heading to her city as it was where the majority of the case had taken place to that point, and served as her justification for taking fewer League members with her.

* * *

A limousine pulled around the fenced in area of a compound. Inside the car, there was a conference call conversation taking place. "The pathogen has only just reached testing phase." The man said.

"According to your men, he's getting close." The woman at the other end responded, concern more than evident on her voice. "We agreed that once you used my research and combined it with your own, I'd be allowed to use it if he got too close."

"It's not ready for that yet." The man calmly informed her before he downed a flute of champagne.

"What do you mean it's not ready yet?" The woman asked incredulously. "I told you that Batman would be a problem sooner rather than later."

"I know, I know that with the Bat it's only a matter of time before he comes to you, but realistically we both knew that was going to be unavoidable." The man answered. "My suggestion is that you go into hiding until the pathogen is ready to use on all of them."

The woman grumbled. "Fine. I'll have your men gather everything and escort me back to you."

The man felt his car come to a halt as he'd been listening to the woman accept that she had to wait. "No, that's not going to work I'm afraid." He responded. "We need to stay separated in the event that anything is discovered. I've already left the lab in capable hands."

"So, you're just going to leave me here on my own?" The woman asked.

"Only until the pathogen is ready." The man explained. "As soon as it is, you'll be the first person I come for, and then we can both get what we've only dreamed about until now."

"You'd better not try to double cross me." The woman warned.

"Without your research, this wouldn't have been possible." The man answered with a smile as his car door opened. "Look, I need to go now, but you have my word that I'll be in touch. Until then, be safe." Without waiting for a response, the man ended the call and climbed out of the back seat. He adjusted his suit as soon as he was standing outside the car, and then looked over the compound briefly.

The limo driver led his master to the main entrance of the compound. Once at the front door, the master turned to his driver and provided his instructions. "I'll only be a few moments, but while I'm gone I want a report from Andre. Then contact the general. I want every assurance from him that our plans will remain on schedule."

"Yes master." The driver replied before ducking away to do his master's bidding.

The man waited until his driver left his side before he entered the compound. Once inside, he realized that everything appeared to be done as he'd paid for them to be. The outside structure was well hidden to prevent unwanted guests, and on the inside it was simple while also structurally sound at the same time. Most of the building itself housed various forms of energy creating and storage devices, but at the far end was a state of the art containment cell. The cell seemed to have all the bells as whistles, as well as odd scribing etched into each wall.

Inside the cell was quite a large human, his broad shoulders rising and falling slowly with each breath. The man on the outside approached confidently to the viewing glass wall. There were soldiers and scientists scurrying about in a manner that spoke more of business as usual than anything else. The man looked at one of the scientists for a moment, and then glared until he garnered the attention he desired. "Y...yes sir?" The scientist eventually managed to spit out.

"I wish to speak with him." The man announced, and the scientist immediately hopped to attention, enabling the radio controls.

"I see you've woken my friend." The man called out into the wall mounted microphone.

He waited for two minutes, not receiving a response from the man. The scientist that had enabled the communication system began to fidget in nervous energy as the silence endured. He checked and rechecked to confirm that the equipment was functioning properly, not wanting to be on the receiving end of any repercussions. He could see that the man's patience was beginning to waver, and knew that it would likely not be good for him if the prisoner decided not to speak.

The man rolled his head around, causing a slight popping sound to occur before he took a deep breath and tried again. "Look, my men and I are the ones that freed you from the imprisonment that had held you for all those miserable years. I know what you desire because it's the same desire that I have." Having given his plea to reach out, he stood there waiting, hoping for a response.

The man began to think that his effort was in vain, but just as he started to turn away he heard something. It wasn't clear at first, but the man inside the cell suddenly turned and looked at him, almost through him if he were forced to admit it. And then the caged man spoke again. "One cage for another."

Excitement ran through the man immediately, and he knew now was his best opportunity. "No, no." He responded quickly. "You were placed here for your own protection. I wanted you to regain your strength. I've been checking on you for weeks now ever since we found you, and soon you'll be ready to rejoin the world and take what is rightfully yours."

"What is in this for you?" The caged man asked suspiciously as he stood and moved closer.

"You are not the only one who has been shunned so by those who should have only shown you love my friend." The man explained. "And our adversaries are the same, I can assure you. I need your help to defeat them, and if you're willing, I have a plan that, with your help, will get us both what we want in the end."

The man in the cage paced for a few moments, deep in thought. He knew that it was true about this man and his followers freeing him from his solitary prison, and he had been weak initially. He simply wasn't sure if he could trust this man who clearly had his own agenda, but if it would grant him the possibility of freedom as well as attaining his own desires then at the very least he needed to hear the man out.

So the caged man stopped in his pacing and sat back down on his cot before placing his elbows on his knees and steepling his fingers in front of his face. "Very well." He finally replied. "Share this plan with me so that I can make my decision."

* * *

When Diana and her teammates initially arrived in Washington D.C., she attempted to contact Batman, but he wasn't responsive at all. So instead of trying again she had the Flash zip through the city searching for the Dark Knight. It only took about ten minutes before he called back with confirmation of a dark shadowed figure roughing up some street thugs, and the rest of the group started to make their way over to the coordinates he provided.

Batman was standing over the last downed thug from a group that had been attempting to mug a young couple. During the confrontation, he felt a presence off in the distance, and assumed it was an unwelcomed teammate. He decided to ignore that person until the fight with the thugs had ended, but now that it, had he was free to address the eavesdropper. "You can come out now." He announced without turning around. "One building back behind my position, and off to the left. One story up."

Flash was astounded at being located so easily by a normal human. He'd never tried sneaking up on Batman before, and now he knew better than to try. With all the happenings around, he thought that he'd been silent enough even if Batman weren't fighting criminals. It made him curious as to how the Bat was able to know he was there. "Sorry Batman, but this is supposed to be a team effort." He announced as he sped down to ground level and came to a stop in front of the Dark Knight. "League orders."

"I know." Was Batman's quipped response. "How far out are the rest of this group?"

"About two minutes." Flash answered before changing topics. "I have to say, that was impressive. Even the stories about you don't do you justice."

"You've seen me fight before." Batman responded as he went around tying the thugs up with plasticuffs.

"As a part of the team, and normally you're toward the back finding our enemy's weakness before you tell us how to strike." Flash offered as a prime difference in fighting tactics that the Batman employed. "I mean you just took down four armed men without even getting hit once. Even you have to admit that it's different when you have super speed or something like that."

"Speaking of super speed, how many names on the list have you seen?" Batman asked, quickly getting back on topic.

"None yet." Flash answered. "We just got here, and first thing I did was find you."

"Then the first place we're going is down the street five blocks and to the left." Batman explained as he pulled out his grapnel gun to start heading in that direction.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Flash asked.

"They should be splitting up and looking for the others." Batman answered. "The two of us should be able to handle this. Jack isn't a Meta-human after all."

Flash couldn't help but agree, and as he zipped down to the location of the first name on the list, he radioed Batman's suggestion to the rest of the team. There was little resistance to the suggestion as Batman was at least willingly working with the group, and it was a sound course of action to take. So Hal and Diana broke off their current trajectory and headed for the next name's known location.

By the time Flash had spoken with the rest of the D.C. based team, Batman had already landed next to him and enabled the infrared ocular lenses of his cowl. He looked over the small house closely, but eventually came to the conclusion that there were no heat signatures inside strong or large enough to be considered humans. As he disabled the infrared and turned to his teammate, he could see that Flash was already anxious to move in. A man with high speed coursing through his body simply didn't do well with standing still for any extended period of time. "No positive heat signatures inside." He announced.

"Move on to the next house and hope for better luck?" Flash suggested.

"Negative." Batman quipped. "Move in here. Let's see if we can find something that tells us where Jack might've slipped away to."

Flash nodded, and zipped over to the house in a red blur. He wasn't over there for more than fifteen seconds before coming to an abrupt halt right back to where he'd left off. "Umm, we've got a small problem." He announced, instantly gaining the Bat's full attention. "Three dead bodies inside, and from your list it looks like one of them is Jack."

"The other two?" Batman asked.

"Both female." Flash answered. "A mother and a daughter if I had to guess at first glance."

"Jack's wife and child." Batman surmised as he started to march over to the house. "Were you there long enough to establish a likely cause of death?"

"It looks like each of them died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds." Flash started to describe as they reached the front door.

Batman remained silent as he entered. He was sure that Flash would've spotted anyone else throughout the house during the initial sweep, but one could never be too cautious. Slowly, he moved through the house until he'd located all three bodies and established that the murderer wasn't still inside. Then he focused on giving a closer look to each body. "They were executed." He concluded. "One shot to the head and two in the chest on all three victims."

"Professionals?" Flash suggested inquisitively, and received an affirming nod. "Should we tell the others?"

Batman agreed that informing the rest was a good idea, and was going to instruct Flash to contact the others when they were interrupted by an incoming message via communicator. "Wonder Woman to Batman and Flash." The voice of the Amazonian princess announced.

"Go ahead." Batman called back.

"We've found dead bodies at the second location." Diana informed. "And have confirmation that one of them is the contact we were looking for. It looks like they were executed."

"Split up and move to the next two locations, and then fan out from there." Batman hurriedly ordered. "Flash and I will handle the rest, and we'll meet back up to compare notes."

"Understood." Both Diana and Hal replied before cutting the radio transmission and heading off.

Batman then turned to his speedy teammate. "Get to each location as fast as you can." He ordered. "Hopefully we can locate some of them before they're executed."

With his ordered received, Flash gave a quick salute before taking off in a blur. Batman left him to get to the rest of the names on the list as he had a crime scene to investigate before the authorities were notified. If Flash happened to find someone who was still alive or even stumbled upon the people performing the executions, then he'd rejoin the rest and question them instead. He felt that whoever was in charge might be trying to tie up any perceived loose ends, and these assassins might know more than the low level street muscle on the list he'd attained from his original interrogation.

Flash wasted little time in running in and out of each address that was left on Batman's list. After reaching the first three houses and finding the same results as the first, his hopes of finding any survivors started to diminish greatly, and with good reason. By the time he'd gotten to the final house, he could confirm that everyone had been murdered, and in the same precise fashion. Three gunshots into each victim, and judging from the look of them all, he'd wager that it was from the same caliber rounds.

"Wonder Woman to Flash and Batman." Diana called to the human speedster.

"Flash here." He responded.

"We've gone to each of houses from our portion of the list." She announced. "And we've found nothing but murders at each location."

"Same here." Flash informed.

"Come back to the first house from the list." Batman ordered. "I'm almost finished going over the crime scene here."

"We'll all rendezvous there once I've contacted Superman and informed him of our findings." Diana responded. "Then we need to contact the authorities and announce our findings."

Flash zipped back to Batman's location after the conversation with Diana ended, and naturally he was the first one to arrive. He found the Bat still inside taking various samples before inserting them securely into his belt. Being a Crime Scene Investigator himself, he also noted just how meticulously thorough Batman was. His first thought was just how good of a forensic analyst Batman could be if he wanted, and that happened to be where a good portion of where his respect for the Bat came. One large difference he noticed between the two of them as CSI's was that while he worked crime scenes, he was always talking to himself whereas Batman never spoke a word.

Batman remained silent as the night as he continued to work, and eventually, just like standing still for too long, Flash couldn't remain quiet long either. "So, uh... I'm guessing from the size of the wounds that the weapon of choice used 9mm rounds." He offered as an attempt to break the silence.

"That's likely, but still need to confirm." Batman responded quietly to the surprise of the red clad hero. "It looks like the ones responsible for this collected their shell casings before moving on. We'll have to determine the size for certain based on the entry wounds."

"Judging from the human eye, they were all the same at each house I went to." Flash added.

"Every mark was retired?" Batman asked as he continued searching for any evidence.

"We were able to identify everyone from your list, and most of the houses were like this one with extra victims inside." Flash reported. "No survivors, and I didn't see anything that pointed to the ones responsible either."

Batman continued to work as the Flash contemplated how to keep the dialogue going. He could tell that the speedster was once again struggling with remaining still, and already knowing his "other" career choice, Batman made a decision. "You have crime scene experience. There's still one more body to investigate. See if you can find anything that might help us with the investigation."

Flash was initially wide eyed upon hearing Batman's suggestion. It caused him to wonder if the Bat knew more about him than he was aware of, but he wasn't about to pass up the chance to move around and be constructive. He might not have had his crime scene equipment, but he knew there were other things that could be done to examine a crime scene, and immediately got to work.

The two men continued on in silence, not even pausing to register the arrivals of Green Lantern or Wonder Woman until they were finished with the house to Batman's satisfaction. When they joined the other two at the front door, where they had been patiently waiting. "Update on the status from Metropolis." Batman barked out as he faced them.

Diana was about to explode from Batman's attempts of making demands of her instead of simply requesting it like a brother or sister in arms, but Green Lantern knew from his few run in's with the Dark Knight that it was best to keep things simple or run the risk of falling behind or being left out entirely. "Looks like we were more than just one step behind the bad guys this time, Spooky." He announced. "They found the same thing we did. Just a bunch of dead bodies at every location."

"Were the Metropolis murders performed in execution style gun shot wounds as well?" Batman asked, wanting every detail. Diana opened her mouth to answer him, but just as she did, Batman raised a hand to the side of his head as if he were cupping his ear. She quickly figured that he was listening in to some form a radio communication as she could see the occasional clinching and unclenching of the muscles on his jaw as he stood there.

Diana waited patiently until Batman began to drop his arm to his side, and then gave him an expectant look. He noticed her glare pointing directly at him, and knew that she expected to know what he'd just heard, and she likely wouldn't leave him alone until he spilled. "They found Parsons' body." He disclosed.

"Was he executed as well?" She asked.

"Cause of death was reported in as undetermined barring the results of an autopsy." Batman answered. "I'm going to see what I can find there."

Batman made to pull out his grapnel gun, but was halted by Wonder Woman latching onto his arm. He glared down at her hand for a moment before focusing that same look onto her, but she didn't relinquish her grip on him. "We're all going." She announced, making sure that she left no indication in her tone that any argument would sway her.

"Just stay out of my way." He ordered before ripping his arm free from her grip and firing the grapple to a nearby building, and seemingly flying away with his cape billowing behind him.


	6. Chapter 6: Plan of Attack

Chapter 6: Plan of Attack

A/N: We're starting to clear up some of the mystery here as a powerful enemy is revealed.

* * *

It'd been a frustrating week. Because of all the League regulations, protocols, and hoops he'd been forced into jumping through, Batman was forced to wait for the coroner to finish with their autopsy before he could even begin looking into the cause of Parsons' death. Showing patience for others was certainly not on the list of Batman's strengths, and with that lack of patience, he attempted on multiple occasions to intervene or even take over the lab work. However, each of his attempts went for naught, as apparently this must've been the only open case for entire the Justice League. He actually almost wished for some type of invasion attempt to occur, just to occupy the other League members. As it stood now, every attempt he made at slipping into the D.C. morgue did not go unnoticed.

They were unwilling to let him alter the actual process being performed by the "professionals" as Superman and Wonder Woman had called them, and as a member of the Justice League, it was expected of Batman to allow those proper authorities to do their jobs. Even with his valid argument of the very real potential need to conserve time, and setting aside his own paranoid need to double check the "professional's" work looking for any potential inconsistencies, no one was willing to budge.

Now, in the confines of his cave, Bruce found himself even more frustrated after having gone through the initial coroner's report. Pending a toxicology report and blood work, the diagnosis was currently labeled as unknown as to the cause of Parson's death. That was simply unacceptable to him, especially given the circumstances. He needed answers, and the need was only going to become more dire as time continued to roll on. He knew there had to be a way of working around to help keep the League off his back. Ever since he'd gotten hold of the report, he'd been working on getting to the lab samples without triggering the League to the extent where they would intervene again.

After a few hours, Bruce came up with the idea of going through a more tedious and bureaucratic route to hasten his gaining access to the samples. He'd managed to successfully hack into the D.C. police department servers, and located the status of the samples and requested lab work. Getting to that was where his frustration only continued to grow. The case work had been backlogged behind of "higher profile" cases, and if he didn't do something, it would be a number of weeks, possibly more than a month before anyone would even get around to working it.

More determined than ever, Bruce worked through all the paperwork, massaging and manipulating what was necessary until the samples and blood work were approved for transfer to the Gotham City Crime Laboratory under an expedited transport order. Once it arrived there, he'd have virtually free reign to step in and help expedite the process further with his own equipment, and the League wouldn't be able to say a word because it was in Gotham. Having it there also provided an added bonus in that he'd be dealing with the GCPD and their crime lab typically. It was accustomed that they would turn a blind eye when it came to his intervention, and blind eyes meant there would be no form of notification for the rest of the Justice League to be apprised of.

Over the previous few years, Batman's efforts had provided the reasoning for the Gotham crime lab not raising any concerns or issues. His work often provided more details to a case than they could discover on their own, and being able to provide his findings into their reports caused their lab to look better in the eyes of those that mattered. Granted, they still checked on the vigilante's work, and upon doing so, the Crime Lab personnel always discovered things they seemed to miss that he'd found. Batman's findings reports were always intricately detailed, and up to this point, no report had yet to come back with any inaccuracies.

According to the paperwork he'd manipulated, the samples were slated to be delivered later that evening. Batman had every intention of being there when they arrived, and even the suddenly flashing and blaring of his proximity alarm going off wasn't about to stop him this time. He vowed to himself that he was going to start finding answers. Now.

Bruce spared a glance over to the security monitors, and after realizing who his intruder was, he found that he couldn't stop the slight upward turn of his lips. Apparently the Justice League had been paying more attention to this investigation than he'd given them credit for. With it being just Superman, he didn't rush to put on his Batsuit. There was no threat of giving away his secret identity to the man entering through the Batwing tunnel. According to his highly sophisticated security equipment, there'd been only one source of movement around the Wayne Manor grounds, and since Superman was the only one to know who Batman was, it was a simple deduction. He didn't even need to check the Justice League communicator tracing program, but still did to appease his ever present paranoia.

Sure enough, Superman glided in from the Batwing tunnel, touching down next to the bat shaped jet. "Bruce." He called out, hearing his own voice as it echoed off the cave walls.

"What is it this time, Kent?" Bruce responded from in front of his super computer.

"The League was notified as soon as the lab work became tagged for Gotham." Superman conveyed. "I thought we had an understanding after the last few attempts you made, that you weren't to supersede the process. Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You had been quiet over twenty-four hours before this little stunt."

"Stunt?" Batman asked incredulously. "We need answers now Clark, not in another month when whatever is being concocted is already out on the streets."

"What do you mean in a month?" Superman questioned in surprise. "How do you..."

"Spend more time on the details of the case instead of trying to force me into adhering to policies when time is an obvious issue." Batman interrupted. "The D.C. crime lab has a laundry list of cases they feel is more important. No one can guarantee that Parsons was killed because of what he might've known. It's all just speculation, and therefore labeled as just a common murder of one man in a large city."

Superman was still coming to grips with Batman's claim of just how long they might actually have to wait for lab results to come back. He knew coming into the cave that what Bruce had already done wouldn't be so easily undone, especially without drawing unwanted attention to it, and now it seemed the man might have a more compelling argument. "Alright Bruce, you win this time." He eventually announced. "But next time, try presenting to us what you know about the time constraints, and maybe you'll be surprised to find out just how far the rest of us are willing to bend certain rules when it's justified."

Bruce snorted in disbelief upon hearing that load of garbage. "Fine." He growled. "It's almost time for patrol, so feel free to get out."

Bruce's response offended the Man of Steel quite a bit, but he'd expected that too after coming into Batman's realm unannounced and uninvited. Still, he had to hold himself back and bite his tongue to keep from responding in kind. It still took a few deep cleansing breaths to do so, but he managed to calm himself enough to let it go, and turned to make his exit, pausing just as he reached the Batwing tunnel entrance. "Don't forget to keep the League informed of your findings BEFORE you make any other moves with the case."

Bruce turned in the direction of the tunnel, venom filled words filling his mind and burning his tongue to be released onto the Man of Steel, but he'd already disappeared into the tunnel. His words would be useless now as they'd only fall upon deaf ears. He scoffed momentarily about Superman getting in the last word, but didn't let it get any further than that. He had patrol and the Gotham crime lab waiting for him.

* * *

The miniscule movement of Batman's cape was the only thing that the lone CSI noticed in the corner of the crime lab. To say that the man jumped out of his shoes from the sight alone would be a severe understatement. Under different circumstances, visual evidence of the fear caused by just his presence alone would bring a smile to his face, but on this night, he was all about business. He stepped forward into a more illuminated part of the lab area, laying to rest any possible doubt that there was some monster there to devour the startled and hyperventilating CSI. "I need information from the toxicology testing samples and blood work that were delivered tonight." He barked in the deep and threatening gravelly voice, partially caused from his voice modification device.

"H...How did you..." The CSI began to question before seeing the Dark Knight's stance instantly becoming more intimidating, the distance between them quickly vanishing. He tried and failed to gulp down the knot that'd formed in his throat before coming to the conclusion that questioning the Batman was highly unadvisable, especially considering his apparent impatience on this given night. Instead, he scurried over to the package delivered from the U.S. capital, and started sorting out the contents.

Once the CSI validated that everything expected was indeed received, he took the samples and divvied them up so that Batman would have enough to perform his own set of tests while leaving the crime lab enough to test as well. When he'd finished sealing the last of the samples, Batman startled him once again by appearing suddenly and silently right next to the CIS seemingly from out of thin air. The Dark Knight then liberated him of the samples he'd come for, and without a word turned away to make his leave.

The CSI stood there watching as the Bat dressed vigilante pried open a window before leaping out into the night. As soon as Batman was gone from sight, he ran over to that same window, peering out to find no trace of the vigilante anywhere. It was only then that he began breathing again, having unwittingly been holding his breath from the moment Batman snatched up the samples. He decided at that point that perhaps taking a vacation would be a good idea. Maybe look for housing and career opportunities in a brighter, less frightening part of the country.

By the time the CSI made it over to the window, Batman had already used his grapnel gun to zip up onto a nearby rooftop. From there, he summoned the Batmobile for pickup. He wanted to make certain these samples made it back to the Batcave intact, and without delay. He wasn't taking any chances of anything being lost or contaminated before he'd finished patrolling Gotham's streets.

As he waited for the Batmobile to approach, he began to think about the potential need for answers, and how that need was almost certainly time sensitive. Perhaps continuing to patrol Gotham on this night wasn't the most advisable approach, but he couldn't forsake the city for some test results that were going to be hours away from being reviewable either. Depending on those results, he might end up having to devote more time to this case, and also likely take him out of his familiar confines as well.

It was with that line of thinking that he made a choice. "Batman to Nightwing." He called out after opening a communication channel for his former protégé.

"Nightwing here." Dick acknowledged after a couple of seconds. "What's up?"

"Need you to cover Gotham for me tonight." Batman returned. "Something's come up that requires my attention."

"Alright boss." Dick somewhat reluctantly acquiesced. "Not like there was anything going on in the Haven tonight anyways. I'll be there in thirty."

Batman shut down the communication line as his response, and heard the screeching of tires from the Batmobile, as it came to a halt in the adjacent alley. He didn't hesitate an instant with leaping over the building's ledge and gliding down to his high powered vehicle. As he'd been serving the city as Gotham's feared vigilante, he'd realized that when the Batmobile happened to pull into any area of the city, there wasn't much need for checking on the criminal underbelly around it. They seemed to fear the arrival of the car almost as much as whenever he dropped in on them. At just the sight of the car, every criminal in the area scattered like cockroaches when the light is turned on.

It was a nice fringe benefit, not having to worry about someone hiding behind a dumpster, and potentially getting the drop on him while he was climbing into his vehicle. With his established reputation, these nights he didn't have to check from above for any potential threats to his safety before leaping over the edge. That wasn't to say he was getting too comfortable, but now he was able to look around while he descended, and that helped save him some time to potentially stop other crimes from occurring. Another bonus was how if any criminals spotting the bulky, flat black vehicle, they would quickly spread word that the Bat was out. Every little bit helped in his personal war with the criminal element, and hopefully it would help in keeping Dick a little more safe as well.

If word spread happened to spread that Batman had been spotted, and then with Nightwing showing up on the same night, even fewer criminals were willing to risk moving around with nefarious intent. That was what Bruce hoped for.

The canopy slid open just as Batman's feet were about to make contact with the car, and then slid shut the moment Batman's rear end came in contact with the seat. One feature he'd added as a security measure was for the canopy to slide shut as soon as fifty pounds or more of weight registered on the driver seat. He had an override function for the few occasions that a passenger was going to join him, so as not to unintentionally slice off an appendage. There was also a security feature requiring the correct code to be input before the vehicle would move again. One could never be too careful with such a high powered and well armored vehicle.

* * *

Armored mercenaries had been standing guard for what seemed like hours, just outside a large room where only their master was permitted to enter. Ever since his meeting with the man that had been held captive, their master had confined himself to this room. He'd done this from time to time before, but rarely did he maintain his solitude for such a long period of time. However, eventually the door slid open prior to him joining his men. He had a look of sheer confidence and knowing that seemed to drip from his features. The men all gave him their undivided attention instantly. "What are your orders, sir?" One of them asked.

"I must speak with our new ally." The master responded as he marched away from his secluded area. His soldiers followed without question, falling in line and escorting him back to the holding area of the facility where their captive had been all this time.

When the master had originally located this man, he was barely conscious. But even in that state, he'd still managed to kill three men and critically injure ten others before they'd finally locked him inside his cell where he remained for months. During that time, stories began to travel through the ranks of how this man survived without sustenance. He just sat on his bed in the cell, hardly moving at all until just the other day when their master was finally able to get a response out of him.

He'd surprisingly remained there despite the cell door being left open, per their master's earlier orders. Reluctantly at the time, they complied, expecting the caged man to flee at a minimum, but to their surprise, he instead remained there, seated on his bed. The soldiers were astonished by the turn of events, especially as they recalled the struggle to lock him inside the cell upon finding this man. His staying inside his cell however, wasn't the only surprising revelation to be found.

The man who had been held captive up to this point had also grown to almost twice the size that he'd been when they'd left him there unchecked. The soldiers were shocked to the point of coming to a standstill, but their master simply seemed ecstatic to discover this change. "I come with happy tidings, brother." He proudly stated. "And it appears that the news comes at just the right time. You're looking quite well. Ready to rejoin the world."

The caged man turned to face the master, pure white eyes boring into him in a predatory gleam. By his feet laid a couple of corpses from individuals that'd watched over him during his confinement. "Thou hast discovered a means of drawing out our adversaries?" The burly man questioned in anticipation.

"Yes, I believe so." The master replied as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "We must strike in a manner that will draw the attention from the Gods of Olympus. I've planned out a series of strategic strikes, that if done properly, will gain the attention of the War God, and in turn the rest of the Gods will follow. Their involvement will force them into calling upon their champion, and once Wonder Woman attempts to intervene, we will crush her."

"Mine concern only lies with Zeus and his demise." The First Born declared. "With his death, Olympus shall bow to me."

"Even though I'm sure you'll believe this inconsequential, I feel that I must warn you inform you my friend, that the Champion of Olympus has allied herself with other highly powered individuals." The master explained. "I've no doubts that you shall still achieve all your goals, but do advise not to underestimate these individuals. They have been known to be quite the troublesome group to dispose of."

"Peons." The First Born assessed as he stood tall and joined everyone else outside his cell. "They present no threat to me."

"Then allow me to show you the way." The master concluded with an villainous smile plastered on his face. Everything was going to plan, and with the fall of the Justice League, he'd too have what he wanted that had been denied all his life.

* * *

"He plans to be defiant to the very end, doesn't he?" Diana asked from across the dinner booth as she continued discussing the topic Clark brought up.

"Does he know any other way than how to be difficult?" Clark countered as he gazed into his date's blue eyes. "We already knew that he wouldn't want to follow the proper channels, but I never thought even he'd take it to such lengths just to get his way."

"You have to admit, having the blood and toxicology samples sent to Gotham where he could intervene was a clever move." Diana stated as she dug into her chicken salad.

Clark took a bite of his cheeseburger, gnawing away at it as he tried and failed to think of a response. It was true that Bruce's move was calculated and well thought out. There was nothing that could be done to stop it without drawing attention to it from the proper authorities, and then questions would begin to pop up. It was times like this where he pondered just how much good Batman did for the League when compared to what was difficult or bad. Even though Bruce was the one who pulled him back from the torture of Desaad and Steppenwolf before the League had been formed, those merits could only take Clark so far before he began internally questioning the Bat's value to the team. Tonight happened to be one of those times.

"He's just not a team player, Diana." Clark retorted after he pulled a quick sip of his drink to wash down the burger. "It always has to be his way, even though he's rarely even there. It's like he does the bare minimum to remain a part of the team just so he can keep the public off his back. But if any of us were to try something without his approval, it's like the world will come to an end. I just get sick of it, and sick of him sometimes."

"Believe me Clark, I don't want to be the one defending him." Diana evenly explained. "He's caused more turmoil within the team than any other member, but he's also always the first in line when danger arises. "One day he may step on enough toes to call for his expulsion, but we must remain patient until that day comes."

Having said that, Diana set her fork down. Dinner no longer seemed appetizing to her. She hadn't come to talk about Batman and his anger invoking methods, but rather to spend some time together. Now she felt like she was being forced to defend him, and she most certainly didn't want anything to do with that. Not to mention that she felt like it'd been ages since she and Clark had been able to see each other outside of work or the League. She just wanted to relax and have some quiet time before they had to return into the fray once again.

"You're already full?" Clark asked as he noticed Diana had stopped eating.

"Lost my appetite." Diana murmured, before deciding to end the meal and standing up from her seat. "I'm sorry Clark, but I think I'm going to call it a night."

Clark was dumbfounded for a moment. Dinner had been Diana's idea. She'd pulled him away from his desk and out of the Daily Planet, not even giving him the chance to accept or decline her invitation, and now she wanted to leave after taking no more than four bites of her chicken salad? "Diana, wait!" He called out while wiping his mouth with a napkin and sliding out of his booth seat to chase her down. As he stood, he quickly threw some money on the table and took off after her, catching up to her just as she reached the front door of the restaurant.

"Why are you leaving when this whole thing was your idea?"

"Dinner was my idea, Clark." Diana growled. "Not talking shop. That's all we seem to do or have time for. All I was looking for was an hour or two to just get away and recharge. I didn't want to talk about cases, the team, and I definitely didn't want to talk about _him._ That's all you've wanted to talk about ever since we've been here."

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry." Clark quickly apologized before reaching for one of Diana's hands to keep her from leaving. "No more shop talk, I promise. We can talk about whatever you want to."

Diana stood there trying to let go of her aggravation with a cleansing breath, but just as she opened her mouth to respond, she was interrupted by the sound of sirens beginning to blare in the distance. She quickly noticed how Superman had ever so slightly reacted to the sound. So much for getting away, she assumed, and saw the answer on Superman's face as it changed to reveal an apologetic look. Another huff of air left her mouth as she internally shook off her disappointment. "Lead the way, and I'll follow." She announced, accepting that they were both back on the clock.

* * *

Three days later, Bruce was continuing to mull over his findings on the blood work and toxicology samples he'd tested. There was literally no true indicator as to the cause of death for Parsons. He'd gone back to the coroner's report, looking for something perhaps on the victim's body to indicate some form of trauma, strangulation, something. All he found there were more questions, especially after adding in the results that his advanced equipment provided.

"Surely the billionaire playboy by day, or the dark outfitted Gotham vigilante can think of something more, constructive, to do with his time than continue staring at that computer screen for hours on end." Alfred lightly poked as he joined his master in front of the super computer, carrying a tray of food with him.

"I don't get it, Alfred." Bruce commented absentmindedly.

"What seems to be troubling your mind sir?" The faithful butler questioned.

"These lab results." Bruce remarked. "There's almost nothing to pinpoint how Parsons was killed. No toxins in his bloodstream, no evidence of blunt force trauma to any part of his body that would even be considered feasible as a possible killing blow. All I gained from the tests is confirmation that he was diabetic, and the amount of lactic acid from his tissue sample is a little higher than normal. There's literally nothing I can pinpoint as to how Parsons was killed."

"If the tests results have already come back, then what tests are you still waiting for?" Alfred inquired while pointing over to a smaller screen next to the main one. "Are you re-running the tests in hopes of having missed something?"

"I've already re-run them twice." Bruce disclosed. "Now I'm having the computer compile and compare Parsons' sample results with anything that I've come across in the past, but I'm basically grasping at straws now."

"I'm sure you'll discover the answer sir." Alfred encouraged. "You always do."

Bruce opened his mouth, preparing a response, but he was interrupted as the warning indicator of an incoming message began to flash onto the main screen. Had he been wearing his comm link in his ear, he'd likely have heard the first attempt from whomever it was trying to reach him. The still sounding alarm was set to go off whenever the escalation process commenced for potential tracing.

Bruce had designed the system to reach out to each area where he might be before that happened. Aside from the super computer, it also tied to the Batwing, Batboat, Batcycles, Batmobile, and a small vault-like room hidden within his office at Wayne Enterprises.

The system was designed so that the alarm went off when a League member added an alert level to the incoming communication. For every other member, this meant that their tracing information was being configured and sent to the Watchtower main computer. In it's entirety, this process took ten seconds. The rest of the League believed this time to be satellites positioning. While that wasn't entirely inaccurate, it also wasn't how Bruce designed the system. In actuality, he set it up to alert him, so that he could respond before anyone could begin tracking him. It was yet another of the precautions keep his identity from being discovered.

"Batman here." He answered with the push of a button onto the primary computer console.

"We're going to need everyone not currently serving monitor duty to come to my location." Superman responded dimly. "There was a massacre here."

"Pulling it up now." Bruce commented as he highlighted a screen and pulled it up on the main monitor to reveal a news story that Superman was likely referencing concerning a conflict that'd become grusomely bloody. At first glance, it appeared to be nothing more than another story about a war torn country fighting amongst each other for years. Granted it was a troublesome conflict that needlessly cost many lives, but in the end it was a war, and as such, casualties were to be expected. Certainly it wasn't something that would require every member of the League to become involved with.

Still, morbid curiosity was getting the better of him. So he performed a Justice League communicator trace to discover where everyone was located. Seeing that, he prepared his intention to decline attending. "Look Kent, I'm sure that you and..."

"Just get down here." Came the quipped and frustrated reply from Superman before he closed the communication link.

Bruce humphed at being on the other end of that tactic for once. He gave pause as he debated whether or not to make the trip until he focused more on the news story. No survivors. Unrecognized cause of deaths. Perhaps there was something to this after all. Seeing that, he made his choice, going over to his changing area and putting on the Batsuit.

* * *

Around the center of the African country, Mali, a Javelin landed beside the Batwing. Batman had arrived mere moments before the rest of the Justice League to meet Superman and J'onn. The rest of the Justice League filed out the back of the Javelin, and instantly everyone could see the cause for alarm. However, it was what they couldn't see that was even more alarming well. All around were the bodies of militia and rebels. There seemed to be no survivors.

Batman knelt down in the middle of all the fallen victims, in a small area clear of any bodies, while also seemingly directly in the center of what was the initial conflict. From that vantage point, it was easy to see that every body had fallen away from it. This spot was definitely where who or whatever was responsible for all the death around had occurred. "There's nothing on the ground to indicate any form of impact took place here." He surmised aloud. "No shell casings, no scorch marks. We need to find out what happened to all of them before anyone tries to blame the other side, and that will only end in an escalation of violence. Where's Cyborg?"

"He was the one on monitor duty." Green Lantern answered. "Why, what do you need spooky?"

"To use his laser eye to scan and grid the area." Batman answered as he continued moving about through the crime scene area. "His cybernetics can calculate and configure a vast amount of numerical equations that might help tell some of the story as to what happened here. Without him, it'll take more time."

"My ring can do that." Green Lantern offered, only to see Batman shaking his head. "What?! It can!"

Not to be deterred by the team detective, Hal began using his ring to form the grid that Batman mentioned while the Bat continued to work. Barry snickered a little as he joined in to help with the investigation, using his CSI experience to aid them. The remaining two available members onsite in Superman and Wonder Woman took the task of validating that there were no survivors.

Hal smiled in satisfaction after completing the task that batman had wanted Cyborg to perform. No one should question the powers of a Green Lantern, and especially not a non-powered freak in a bat suit. "Hey Spooky." Hal hollered as he approached the Dark Knight from behind. "I've got everything you need, including the distance of the closest body from the center of the incident. It was..."

"2.3 meters." Batman interrupted.

Hal's jaw hung agape upon hearing Batman provide the exact information he was about to share. "But..How...Why did you..." He managed to stammer before Batman turned and faced him with a smirk plastered on his face.

"Always double check the work." Batman stated before turning and kneeling back down to the ground. It wasn't that he questioned the accuracy of Hal's ring or it's ability to provide good information even though he was sure Hal would see it that way. It was his paranoia that had Batman contacting Cyborg in order to utilize the lenses in his cowl as a remote video recorder. With the video being sent to the Watchtower, it took a matter of seconds before Cyborg had all the information and sent the results back to Batman electronically.

As they finished gathering all the samples Flash and Batman deemed necessary, the League members began making their way back to the jets just as an incoming transmission came to each of them simultaneously. "Cyborg to Justice League." Vic called out. "We have another location with the same scenario as Mali. This time in eastern Asia."

Everyone gave each other a knowing look. Their work had just begun it seemed.

* * *

It had been a long and grueling twenty-four hours for the Justice League. By the time they'd finally made it back to the Watchtower, there had been a total of five instances around the globe, and all of them seemed to be identical. Whatever was the cause of this seemed to be a step or two ahead of them the entire time, and all they had to go on were some samples yet to be tested in the hopes that something positive would come of them.

Everyone was exhausted by the time they split up to head back to their homes. Diana meanwhile, was anxious for a quick shower before she joined her colleagues by collapsing onto a soft and oh so very inviting bed. After stepping into her apartment, she tossed the light jacket that she'd been wearing onto a nearby chair, but paused immediately as soon as she flipped the closest light switch. She could sense a presence inside her unlit apartment, and her muscles instantly tensed in anticipation of the possible fight to come. "Show yourself." She demanded.

"Fear not child." A familiar voice announced from her sofa, and she immediately knelt in respect for her mentor and owner of that voice.

"Ares." She gasped as she bowed her head. "What brings the God of War to my home?"

* * *

A/N: As always, please remember to feed the author with beautiful reviews. Keep me motivated my friends, and let me know what you think.


	7. Chapter 7: Work of the Gods

Chapter 7: Work of the Gods

* * *

"We're not helping him to promote war." Diana explained. "We're trying to stop the mass murders. What's happening now isn't establishing peace, and it just so happens that the War God's wishes align with ours."

"So we're going with the old the enemy of our enemy is our friend bit?" Hal attempted to recap.

"No, Ares isn't our friend." Batman grumbled through video conference. "As Wonder Woman said, our goals are aligned with his. Temporarily."

"How exactly is Ares going to help us to stop this new enemy?" Aquaman questioned.

"Major conflict seems to be what draws this individual out." Victor disclosed. "Diana's already worked out the plan with Ares to help stir tension in an area of the world that's well known for conflict. As he does this, I can monitor the situation, and once this mystery person makes their move, we can move in."

The conference room quieted down upon hearing Cyborg's explanation, but in looking at the conference monitor, Batman was visibly frustrated. "It's too risky." He announced. "Those people who Ares will be affecting are nothing more than civilians, and unless we can guarantee they'll be removed from the conflict, we should consider other options."

"I'm up for any better suggestions." Superman chimed in, basically accepting Diana's plan being the best course of action. He looked around the table, and then to the video monitor, only to be met with silence as no one seemed able to come up with a better option. "I do understand Batman's point. There is considerable risk, and the people involved didn't sign up for this, even though they may already may have hostile intentions. However, we all have to agree that whoever is responsible for the handful of massacres needs to be stopped before it's too late, and as we stand right now, we'll always be one step behind. This plan, gives us a chance to halt a great threat."

While no one wished to put bystanders in harm's way, there still seemed to be no other viable option. They'd already arrived too late for more than ten incidents with no evidence as to who might be responsible. Batman, upon having heard all the silence he could stand, shut down the remote feed, ending any further participation in the meeting.

As Batman's departure from League meetings was nothing really out of the ordinary, the rest of the group moved forward, discussing in more detail which country would offer the best potential of drawing out their new enemy. They were meticulous, covering every conceivable angle down to the most intricate detail that would be in their control, and no one else left until they all agreed on the plan of action.

Meanwhile, inside the confines of the Batcave, the Dark Knight was fuming. This group was supposed to save lives, not endanger them, and that was precisely what was going to happen. This being, whoever or whatever it could possibly be, was obviously exceptionally dangerous. To have killed so many on both sides of ongoing conflicts between separate forces, without leaving so much as a shred of traceable evidence to speak of, had to mean it held a critical advantage.

Whatever edge this being held, the Justice League didn't have a clue. It could be something like Flash-like speed zipping through each and every person that was killed, or perhaps invulnerability such as Superman's. The possibilities were endless going into an unknown as they were planning to do. Not even Cyborg, with his Apokoliption tech had been able to glean anything to help the team ascertain what they were up against. It really was a crap shoot, and Batman simply wasn't a gambling man.

Until more cards were on the table, Bruce wasn't planning to join the team. He simply would not go into a situation blind. That was a sure fire way to be defeated, and if they were caught up by whatever this was, then no one would be left to protect the world. He could only hope that the rest of the League would be wise enough to remain cautious until they knew what they were up against.

"Has the meeting ended already?" Came the voice of Bruce's most trusted companion, friend, and family member. The British butler turned father figure, and when called upon, surgeon approached from behind. Sometimes Bruce swore that the old man utilized the sound dampening technology of the Batsuit with his own shoes. To this day, he remained the only person, super powered or non, who was able to sneak up to within ten feet before being noticed.

"No Alfred." Bruce responded as his eyes remained on the computer screens despite the inner conflict regarding Alfred's methods in silence. "It was pointless to keep trying to reason with them. We'd only be talking in circles."

"Sir, I do wish that on occasion, you'd be more agreeable with the League members." Alfred blew out in exasperation before turning to his age old option of cynicism to get through to the young man. "If only to keep them off balance, sir."

The corner of Bruce's lips turned upward ever so slightly. Alfred always seemed to know what to say that would improve his mood, even if only slightly. He decided to take a moment and let go of some other things that were bothering him, as he turned in the computer chair to face his surrogate father. "I would Alfred, but there are certain members of the team that continue to hide things from the rest of us."

"The Amazon Princess?" Alfred clarified. "What are you referring to with her, hiding things?"

"The War God knows more than what she's sharing, I'm convinced of it Alfred." Bruce explained as he stood and strode by his butler, making his way over to the weaponry vault with the intention of restocking his primary patrolling utility belt before leaving. "It's either that, or she's so ready for a battle that she doesn't think about strategy, and instead just goes in on the blind faith that a sword and an unbreakable lasso will always be enough. I'd like to believe that she's smarter than that, and in either case, I can't trust someone like that."

"Are you entirely sure that this road to trust heads in both directions sir?" Alfred probed, picking his spots to point out when his surrogate son was being more critical than fair

"That's different." Bruce snapped. "When it comes to the safety of anyone, I always provide any detail that might save lives. She should understand the consequences of not always being the strongest person in a fight. That's when you need to know what's around you the most."

"While I do know that trust is something earned instead of given, you should also keep in mind that they need to have a certain level of trust in you as well, sir." Alfred offered, but knew full well that the young man wouldn't hear it.

Bruce chose not to respond to that point. Instead, he quickly finished attaching his utility belt, and began making his way over to the Batwing. He would've climbed into the cockpit, and evade any further lecturing if not for the beeping tone that began to emanate from the Cray supercomputer. He could tell by the sound of the tone that it would be something of interest, and didn't hesitate at all in changing his course.

"It can't be." He eventually stated in astonishment, more to himself than anyone in particular as his fingers began to dance across the key board.

"What is it sir?" Alfred asked as he approached from behind.

"The computer was able to pin down a specific part of an isotope from the samples I received in the Parsons case." Bruce explained as he continued to scroll through the results.

"So you were able to discover the cause of death of the young girl's father?" Alfred guessed.

"Not exactly." Bruce responded as he leaned back and began to stroke his chin. "At least not the cause of death. It is something that I've come across before, but never before in human DNA."

Having the first real lead in quite some time, Bruce quickly turned on his heel and headed for the Batmobile. He wouldn't be joining the League for their little plan after all, as he needed to instead stay in Gotham. He had a suspect to seek out.

* * *

A man walked assuredly through the bowels of a dark and dank cave despite the cackling howls which sounded eerily similar to hyenas. He knew exactly where he was headed, even though this was his first time being there. Soon enough he spotted a flicker of light consistent with the dancing of flames as a fire continued to burn in the center of the cave. Close by, he could make out the silhouette the large man he sought. "You've certainly been busy my friend." His voice echoed out as he approached. "According to my well placed sources, you've managed to successfully garner the attention of the Justice League. In fact, it's entirely likely that you will come across them soon rather than later."

"I have laid the trap to draw out my enemies." The First Born responded. "It matters not should these _Justice League_ peon mortals choose to become involved. They will only be crushed if they choose to stand against me."

"As I've warned you before, you shouldn't look past them." The man advised after coming to a stop, facing the First Born directly. It was then he quickly noticed how much the First Born had grown in size since they'd last been face to face, but size mattered not. The Justice League was a formidable opponent, even if the First Born had increased his power exponentially, and he needed to be reminded of this. "They've made a habit of stopping perceived transgressors, and you slaughtering in masses has certainly painted yourself as that."

"Let them come." The First Born announced. "I pray they can provide a challenge for me before I move on to claim what should have always been mine."

Some rustling around them managed to temporarily draw the man's attention to the large number of hyenas stirring around him. Had he not seen it firsthand, he never would've believed that the First Born could control such wild, scavenging beasts. Normally a human would only look to be a meal, and a small morsel at that considering the large number of animals that shared this cave.

"Tell me, First Born, what purpose do these creatures serve for you?" The man questioned.

"I intend to use these creatures for the battles which do not concern me." The First Born detailed. "My interests only lie in those who serve Mount Olympus, such as the one you refer to as Wonder Woman. Her demise will mark the beginning of my transcendence."

"Where do you intend to strike next?" The man asked. "The conflicts around the world seem to have dissolved away after news of your recent exploits began to spread . There has even been talk of cease fires around the globe."

"The mortals of this planet can only remain docile for so long before their petty differences arise. When this happens, I shall move in and put an end to their plight as well as their meaningless and miserable lives."

The First Born focused on the hyenas around him, closing his eyes and concentrating, using his divine powers to morph the animals into creatures similar to those that he'd used thousands of years ago when he first attempted to garner the attention of his father. That time had spelled his demise. He hadn't been strong enough then, but now would be different.

He was using his _partner_ to meet his own ends, and once the War God fell to him, this partnership would also come to its conclusion. For now, he kept the man believing that their goals were aligned, but this Wonder Woman was only a stepping stone on his path to glory and vengeance. Zeus would pay dearly for banishing him.

The man watched in awe as the hyenas morphed into human-like creatures. He'd managed to glean some details about the First Born's original attempt at taking Mount Olympus for himself and failing. That was in essence what brought them together now, but for how long would that last? The man knew that power corrupted, and power was precisely what the First Born had been seeking. He expected a double cross, and knew that he had to have his contingency plans in place. He hadn't worked so hard and been patient for so long only to have the First Born attempt to usurp Zeus, and take away his own end goal.

For now, their intentions were aligned, and as such, they both planned to use the other until the status quo changed.

* * *

"Status report, Victor." Superman called out through communicator.

"I'm scanning all lines of communication now." Victor replied. "So far, the tension levels have been reported as high in each of the regions where we have teams on standby. You'll know when I do if something pops up."

Superman sighed in frustration. They'd been on standby in teams of two for hours. It wasn't that he minded the company, glancing over to Diana sitting next to him, but the waiting was what irritated him. He could've been back in Metropolis protecting the bright and beautiful city, or even scanning the rest of the world with his enhanced hearing for trouble, but instead, he was stuck on the border of two countries that simply never got along with one another.

Superman wasn't the only member of the Justice League itching at the chance to confront the person or persons responsible for the recent massacres around the globe, and they were anxiously awaiting a brewing conflict to escalate, which seemed incredibly odd. It was an unwanted sensation as they normally worked to quell the conflicts instead of waiting for them to arise without interfering, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Teams, call in with your status." Superman barked. "Team alpha reporting in, still no activity."

"Team beta, all clear here." Hal announced for the tandem of himself and J'onn.

The next two teams, delta and gamma, consisting of Flash with Aquaman, and Cyborg with Shazam followed suit. To that point, no one had witnessed anything resembling the potential of conflict.

Superman tried to keep the growing frustration from showing on his face, but he didn't like sitting there doing nothing for hours on end. In fact, he believed there was only one person on the face of the planet who could stand doing such a thing and still consider it making progress, and even that man had refused to be involved with this mission. Perhaps that should've been a sign.

He couldn't take any more after sitting there for a few more minutes in silence, and stood to his feet, beginning to pace back and forth across the rooftop. He tried to work out some of the tension in his body, stretching his arms above his head, but it didn't seem to help. He was frustrated and needed something to help pass the time. Eventually, he chose to focus on a story he had to work on for the next day's deadline. However that only caused his thoughts to waver and expand to the point of why he'd become a reporter in the first place.

Before long, his thoughts returned to his present company. Diana was still seated, waiting patiently for any potential conflict. She'd been fairly silent ever since they'd touched down on the roof and began their vigil. He started to wonder if there might be other reasons for her silence aside from simply being on a stakeout.

He'd been a fool. Weeks ago when they'd last had an intimate dinner together and she became upset with him, she'd been looking for that bond they shared with each other. He should've seen it. She'd been mostly working with Batman, the most human hero amongst them in one sense, while completely alien in another. She'd needed the outlet that they provided each other, and he was complaining about the Bat.

"I'm sorry Diana." Superman quietly stated as he returned to the seat he'd vacated earlier.

"What do you have to apologize for?" Diana asked in confusion as she turned to face him.

"I didn't…Dinner the other week." Superman stammered guiltily. "I didn't realize how long it'd been since we were able to share a moment alone."

"There's no need to apologize for that Kal." Diana responded as she smiled in appreciation. "We've both been busy, and I just needed a moment away from it all. You had every intention of making it up to me once you noticed."

"No, I…"

"Team Gamma reporting in, we've got some activity." Cyborg announced suddenly, interrupting the conversation.

"What's going on?" Superman asked.

"Syrian rebels moving in on a camp of militants." Cyborg described. "We've got a couple minutes, five tops before the shit hits the fan. Probably a good idea for your team to head to this side of the country."

"Understood." Superman announced. "We're on our way."

* * *

Cyborg and Shazam watched from their hidden position as the Syrian rebels moved in on a soldier campsite. By their movements and body language alone, it was easy to tell they weren't supposed to be there. Upon closer inspection, the rebels weren't wearing authentic Syrian military garb, but rather clothing of the same basic colors which disguised them well enough from anyone who might simply glance in their general direction. However, the closer the rebels got to the campsite, the more stealth-like they attempted to be, ducking into shadowed areas, hiding behind equipment, anything to remain undetected.

Holding still seemed to be the most difficult thing for the heroes to do as they were accustomed to simply moving in at the first hint of trouble. They knew what was about to happen, especially when a single rebel ducked inside of a tent while the others stood watch. They'd planned to slip in and kill their enemies before anyone would know they were there, and the heroes had to let it happen without stopping it in the hopes that this other being would reveal him or herself in order to slaughter everyone.

Neither one of them was going to be able to allow much to happen, expecting the rebel to come back out of the tent at any instant with blood on his hands, but they never expected him to come tumbling out at a higher speed than the rebel could keep his feet under him, quickly slamming to the ground in a heap.

The shock only lasted a few moments, as a monstrously large man soon exited from the tent carrying who was the likely target of the rebels by the throat in one large hand. "Pathetic mortals." The large man stated as he tossed the now dead soldier into the group of rebels. "That you've been permitted to live this long is a travesty."

"He's here!" Shazam called out into the communicator as he leapt into action without hesitation.

"No, wait!" Cyborg desperately called out to no avail as Shazam began charging up in mid flight for his initial attack. "Superman, Shazam's engaging the enemy. I'm moving in to help."

"Acknowledged." Superman declared. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

Cyborg leapt out from his position just as Shazam reached their suspect and slammed down a powerful, electrified attack. He was surprised to see that the attack had no effect on the suspect, as he only reached into and through the electrical charge, latching onto Shazam by the throat before he started to squeeze. Struggling mightily, Shazam couldn't muster the strength to pull himself free, and Cyborg knew he had to do something or else his teammate would be doomed.

Cyborg engaged his weapons array, forming a pulse cannon, and firing it in rapid succession. Each blast struck pure and true, hitting his target in the midsection, but all that it seemed to do was gain his new enemy's attention. At the very least, he did release his grasp on Shazam's neck, however it wasn't until he'd tossed the hero into a tank, causing it to cave in around the hero.

Cyborg noticed the menacing smile as the large man began stalking in his direction. He knew that he'd fired powerful blasts, and could see that it didn't even leave a scratch. Whoever this was, he was very powerful, and Cyborg knew that his best bet would be to evade until the Justice League's heavy hitters arrived. He only hoped that he'd still be standing when they did.

Victor began backing away as he continued firing blasts, using different frequencies in an attempt to find some way to hurt the big man. Soon though, he ran out of real estate, the distance between the two evaporated quicker than he'd anticipated. He ducked out of the way of a swiping attack, but couldn't avoid the second attack of a clubbing fist as it slammed onto his shoulder blade. He cried out in pain, knowing immediately that the human bone had been shattered from the blow.

He looked up, expecting the coup de grace, and saw that Shazam had just arrived behind their enemy, quickly trying to lock him into a full nelson maneuver despite his massive size before spinning around and throwing the enemy into the same tank that he'd just freed himself from. "Are you alright Vic?" He asked as he held out a hand to help his cybernetic friend back to his feet.

"He's too strong for us." Victor announced as he focused on using his abilities to help mechanically piece his shoulder blade back into one piece of bone intertwined with metal. He gritted his teeth as he fought through the pain, watching as their enemy was already approaching. "We have to coordinate our attacks, don't let him get too close to us, and hold him off until Superman and Wonder Woman get here."

Shazam nodded in understanding before flying off to separate the two of them. He worked his way around to their enemy's other side and launched another strike with his electrical power, firing a massive energy ball directly into the enemy. Upon impact, their enemy disappeared into a dust ball, the size of it blinded them to the effect of the attack. That was only until they both heard chuckling just as the dust began to settle.

"Is that the best you have to offer?" The First Born taunted, speaking for the first time in front of them. "I was informed that the Justice League was mighty, but if this is all you have to offer, then I believe your abilities to be overestimated. You pose little more threat than the rest of these puny mortals scurrying about in a useless effort to lengthen their pointless lives."

"Why are you doing this?" Cyborg asked, as he stared into the dust, eventually making out the profile of the enemy. "Who are you?"

"You peons have but only one right of knowledge." The First Born declared. "That your end is at hand."

Immediately after speaking, the First Born instantly launched himself over to Cyborg before he could even react, and the First Born grabbed hold of the cybernetic arm before slamming his elbow down, ripping the arm off just above the joint.

Cyborg once again cried out in pain as Shazam flew in, slamming a right hook into the First Born's side. The force put into his punch was enough that the First Born's body moved to the side a little, but there was little else as the First Born dropped Cyborg's cybernetic arm, spun around and latched onto Shazam by his arm. "You have the stench of magic, mortal." The First Born sneered. "It matters not. You are still inferior to me. However, I shall enjoy ripping you limb from..."

"Put. Him. Down." Superman demanded as he slowly descended to the ground with Wonder Woman.

The First Born snarled as he turned to glower at the person who'd interrupted him, and discovering there were actually two more beings that seemed intent on standing in his path. The female garnered the majority of his attention, sensing immediately just what she was. Killing her would be quite the message for Zeus. Besides, he was nearly finished with the first wave of this supposedly powerful Justice League, and it was pleasurable to see that they were already providing him with the main course.

He charged forward, devastation plainly on his mind as he reared a fist back to slam into Wonder Woman's perfect face, but his intentions were halted as the Man of Steel stepped in to deliver a punch of his own. The First Born hadn't anticipated such power as the fist landed cleanly upon his jaw and sent him flying off a good distance until he crashed back onto the ground. By the time he came to a stop, there was the makings of a trench, created by his body as he slid across the ground. He rolled over and pushed himself up into a kneeling position while rubbing his jaw, and then smiled in amusement as he rose to his feet.

Superman began hovering just off the ground as he cracked his knuckles in preparation for the fight to come. This guy was certainly tough and obviously could take a super-powered punch. It looked like a rare opportunity to let go his restraint in a fight, but even as he readied himself for the next go around, he couldn't help but to notice where their enemy's focus had been. "Any idea who this guy is Diana?"

"I've never seen anyone like him before." She answered as she too got into a fighting stance.

Superman was about to mention what he'd noticed, but the First Born had already chosen to advance onto the two of them, releasing the first attack in a wild and powerful strike. Having not known any better, Superman tried to block the punch with his forearms, but the force behind the strike drove him back even farther than his punch had done to the First Born. He also noticed how his forearms were stinging a little bit. It wasn't much, but was still noticeable. This guy was indeed powerful, and his attack had momentarily caught Wonder Woman off guard as she'd only seen Darkseid move Superman such a vast distance with a single punch.

Now Diana using her fighting skill combined with the Speed of Hermes to evade and counter where she could find openings, but there didn't seem to be many, and Superman attempted to intervene once again. This time he reared back with an overhand double hammer fist, slamming into the back of the First Born's neck. Had he dealt such a blow to anyone else, surely they all would have lost the ability to move, if they even survived, but while this man did momentarily drop down to his knees, he was far away from defeated.

The First Born spun himself around as he returned to a vertical base, grabbing Superman by the wrists, and the two super powered beings wrestled against the other's strength. Superman was putting every bit of his strength into what was seemingly a stalemate. He was gritting his teeth, and noticed a smirk growing on the First Born's face. "Who the hell are you?" Superman growled.

The First Born didn't seem to be interested in speaking until he noticed Diana reaching for her Lasso. He sensed the magical essence emanating from the golden cord, and quickly changed his position, using Superman's own momentum against him. He suddenly stopped pushing, and instead pulled Superman until he was flying over his shoulder and into Wonder Woman.

As they untangled limbs from the two person pile on the ground, the First Born stalked closer to them, extreme arrogance emanating from him in waves. "I am your conqueror, the crippler of souls. I am the First Born." There was a self satisfied smirk as he backhanded Superman away a good distance before picking Diana up by the throat. "Be sure to request that Hades pass my condolences to father, and inform him that he will be next."

Diana's eyes widened upon realization. This "First Born" seemed to be implying Zeus was his father as well. She fought to free herself from his iron grip, kicking him in the midsection while slamming her fists down repeatedly onto the First Born's arm. She managed to touch a foot to the ground, and pulled violently back as she attempted to perform a shoulder toss, but the earth below her merely gave away.

Superman, having recovered from the backhand, shot out like a bullet from a gun, charged in at a vast pace until he slammed into the First Born's side. Diana was freed from the grip around her neck, and didn't hesitate to join the Man of Steel. She knew that their best chance was working together in order to take this monster down, just as they had Darkseid before the Justice League had officially been created.

Diana came in with a thunderous heel kick just after Superman slammed an uppercut into the First Born's jaw. His head snapped violently up and then to the side as a result, and he was shocked initially by the success his opponents were garnering. Zeus had obviously gifted a great power to this female, and the male fighting alongside her was powerful as well. He needed to find an opening, and press his advantage.

The two heroes continued to take their turns striking, countering, and covering for one another as they worked in tandem, slowly pushing the monster of a man back. Cyborg had managed to crawl over to Shazam, collecting his forcefully removed cybernetic arm along the way. His systems began the process of reconstructing and repairing the damage done while the human portion looked over his unconscious teammate for any critical injuries. He wanted to help the others out, but he hadn't been able to even scratch their enemy before, and he was certainly in no shape to take the First Born on again.

Wonder Woman landed a powerful front kick the drove the First Born back a step. She'd put everything she had into that kick, but the First Born just seemed to take it in stride. In fact, she was sure that she'd caught a glimpse of a smile upon his face, and that greatly concerned her. He was enjoying this, and she was beginning to wear down from all the effort she'd put into the fight. Superman was still swinging away, and that smile began to grow. Diana knew something was about to happen and Superman seemed to be none the wiser. "Super..."

Her shout of warning fizzled in her throat as she'd noticed as the First Born unleash a magical orb, engulfing the Man of Steel. He cried out in pain before collapsing to the ground, and then the First Born set his eyes upon the Amazon once again.

"Fellow child of Zeus, your time has come to an end." He declared just before lunging forward with a vicious punch to the gut that bended her over as she tried and failed to gasp for air.

Superman, despite feeling drained from the magical attack, leapt onto the First Born's back. He was immediately and unceremoniously tossed aside like a piece of refuse, but it was only then he saw what appeared to be veins of some sort, stretching outward from the First Born. He tried to get up to evade them, but still not recovered, he was unsuccessful.

The First Born commanded the veins of his cloak to reach out, ensnaring both the male and female, stringing them up in midair before him. "What...are you...doing?" Diana managed to ask as she struggled to catch her breath.

The First Born merely smiled back at her before both heroes began to feel the extremely painful experience of having their life force sucked out of them. Neither one could summon the strength to escape or even call out for help.

The affect was instantaneous. The First Born feasted on the life force of the two heroes. He moved closer, grabbing Diana by her jaw between his thumb and index finger, and he lifted her face up to look into her eyes. He was going to watch and enjoy as the life left her eyes. It would be a small payment toward his father for the centuries of imprisonment, but one had to start somewhere on the road to vengeance. This child was obviously favored more so than he'd been. She'd been allowed to roam the Earth after all. Now by her death, he would use her power to help him against his father.

* * *

A/N: Special thanks to CrazyP. I had a lot of details that he helped me with to get this chapter finished up. Let's keep those reviews coming, and spread the love. Sorry it took me so long to update, but this was a difficult chapter for me to crank out for some reason.


	8. Chapter 8: Dealing with Defeat

Chapter 8: Dealing with Defeat

* * *

Things were starting to become hazy. They both were getting closer and closer to succumbing under grip of such a powerful being, their life force siphoning away from both of the most powerful members of the Justice League. It wasn't supposed to be this way. They were supposed to be strong enough to overcome any obstacle placed before them. How could one man have contained the strength to defeat Wonder Woman and Superman without even breaking into a sweat?

Superman forced his eyes to open despite his body's insistence of doing the exact opposite. He had almost no life left in him, and glanced toward the individual that was going to be his end, this First Born. He was just about to give up hope when, from the corner of his eye, a green hue began to infiltrate his vision. Sure enough, his eyes didn't deceive him, as a giant pair of green scissors appeared, dividing himself and Wonder Woman from the First Born's leaching tethers.

The scissors pinched shut quickly, ripping through the vein-like strings attached to the First Born's cloak, and temporarily freed from the life draining strings, both Superman and Wonder Woman gasped for air, sucking it in as if they'd been held under water to the point of drowning. The First Born snarled, telepathically commanding the veins to latch onto the heroes once again, but Green Lantern was quick in changing the scissors into a catapult, launching his teammates away from immediate danger.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Hal asked as he floated next to an almost fully recovered Shazam. "And how was he able to take down both Superman and Wonder Woman?"

"Don't know," Shazam replied. "But whatever he did, I know neither of them could get away. It almost looked like he was slowly killing them."

"Well, what are we waiting for, an invitation?" Lantern rhetorically questioned, preparing to join in the battle.

"No!" Cyborg shouted, temporarily halting Hal from advancing on the enemy, who was already heading their way. "He took Shazam and I out too. Even quicker than he did Superman and Wonder Woman. We can't win facing him head on like this."

"Then what do we do? Run and hide?" Hal incredulously asked.

"We fall back and regroup." Cyborg answered just as his cybernetics activated a boom tube hidden inside his circuitry. "Get Diana and Superman. We're getting out of here while we still can."

Lantern hesitated initially, noticing how the First Born had increased his pace. He didn't know what he was actually up against, but if the guy was powerful enough to take out four members of the Justice League singlehandedly, then perhaps discretion was the best course of action. So, using his ring once again, he formed a basket around the two highest powered League members, and carried them closer to the rest of the team.

Cyborg then opened up a boom tube, and led the rest of the team into it, only looking back after all of them had safely entered into the portal, and seeing the First Born charging straight for them. He knew without a doubt that they were no match for the First Born, especially in their current condition. So he quickly stepped in and closed the boom tube, preventing the First Born from following after them.

The boom tube shut just as the First Born reached where it'd been mere seconds before. He was furious at having the Justice League slip through his grasp, and especially due to the realization that one of them was of his father's creation. His first initial message to Zeus managed to evade him, and he wanted to draw her back out to him once again so he could finish her off. Then he would be able to point his focus more toward his usurping his father's rule.

Wonder Woman and Superman each jumped with a start before realizing they'd been moved into a safer locale. Each of them were somewhat shaken after their encounter with the First Born. Both had given him their all, and despite their enhanced strength, they'd been literally no match for the villain. No member of the Justice League appeared to be. "What happened?" Wonder Woman asked, breaking the silence that was beginning to linger around the group.

"That's what I'd like to know." Hal added.

"I remember those things protruding off the First Born." Superman described. "Once they latched on, I couldn't get away. It felt...like I was dying."

"It was as if those things were sucking the life from you." Diana added.

"Whoever the First Born is, he's incredibly powerful." Cyborg stated. "He took all of our best shots, and just kept on coming for more. It seemed like he was just toying with all of us."

"Toying with you?" Hal responded in utter disbelief. It was beginning to sound like the most powerful weapon in the universe may not have been enough either. "Well, we can't just let him keep killing people. What are we going to do?"

"Go over every detail of what transpired, and come up with a calculated plan of attack." Batman announced as he'd silently joined the group in the Watchtower's conference room. Hal jumped the most out of the four of them, and Batman allowed his lips to curl ever so slightly from the sheer enjoyment of causing a mighty Green Lantern to jump so easily.

"Geez." Hal complained after regaining his composure. "Do you just wait for people to let their guard down before you step in to try giving them a heart attack?"

"No." Batman answered simply. "And I didn't scare everyone. Superman and Wonder Woman knew when I arrived."

Hal grumbled under his breath, thinking that Batman wouldn't pick up on the words he was uttering, but didn't want to spare the time on something so insignificant. This...First Born had thoroughly trounced two of the most powerful members of the Justice League, and even the actual reason he'd come up to the Watchtower had to take a back seat. He'd seen the group and how disheveled the four members appeared, and knew that the priority was discovering anything and everything he could in order to bring this First Born character down. "Cyborg," Batman barked. "Send me a video replay of the attack from beginning to end. I'll start dissecting it, looking for some clues or even weaknesses to exploit. As for the rest of you, file your mission reports, and if needed, head to the medical wing for any necessary treatment. Otherwise, I expect you to rest up and prepare for when we confront the First Born again."

Surprisingly, there were no arguments from anyone. Instead, Cyborg quietly loaded the videos into the Watchtower computer servers, and then joined the others in going their separate directions. Batman watched closely as each of them made their exits. In reading their body language, everyone seemed to have a somber tone about them, and especially so for Superman. Batman surmised that this instance might've been the first time someone had been noticeably more powerful than he was without the added use of Kryptonite. To put it simply, on the extremely rare instances where this occurred, Superman seemed to not know how to handle it.

The Man of Steel had become accustomed to being invulnerable and the most powerful being on Earth. It wasn't every day where a being such as him would encounter someone who could swat him away as if he were only a pest, and Batman wouldn't be able to help him through his struggle. He simply had no pity for Superman in such situations. It was never about being the strongest all the time. Regardless of one's power, there is always someone out there who is stronger. He needed to focus not on the fact that he'd been outmuscled, but rather on what he could do the next time to offset that disadvantage.

* * *

A few hours had passed by, and Batman was seated in front of a monitor screen, going over footage from the fight for what seemed to be the hundredth time. It was a constant pattern of playing a small portion, rewinding, and then replaying again and again until he felt he'd gleaned everything there was from a specific portion of footage. One certainty that needed no replaying was the fact that this First Born being was certainly as powerful as his teammates had described. Up to that point, there also didn't seem to be any glaring weakness to exploit.

Shazam's attacks didn't seem to faze him much at all, ruling out magic as an effective weapon. Victor's cybernetic cannons also appeared to be ineffective, and while Wonder Woman and Superman could knock him back a little, their attacks were all close range. At such a limited distance, they were effectively putting themselves into a compromising position of being latched onto again by those vein-like tethors, and this time the First Born would likely be expecting some form of attempted intervention.

That also led him to believe there was little Hal's power ring would offer as well. There was no footage available to back up that assumption, but it was a gut feeling, and he never went against such feelings without some solid evidence to offset his concerns.

"Where's Victor?" The feminine voice of Diana called out from behind, catching Batman off guard slightly. He'd been so entwined in his research, that he actually hadn't heard the doors opening, nor her footsteps as she approached him. It was almost enough to elicit the same reaction he'd gotten out of Hal earlier that day. Almost.

"Still repairing the damaged cybernetics." Batman answered as he went back to the beginning of the video, and started watching it again. "I offered to take his Monitor Duty until his repairs were completed. Speaking of, shouldn't you be resting and recovering?"

Normally, Diana would've argued that Batman needed to mind his own business, but something told her that this time, he wasn't trying to get under her skin, but rather was actually showing true concern for his teammates. She released a frustrated sigh as she took a seat next to him. "I've rested enough."

"Couldn't sleep anymore?" He asked, although if she were honest, it sounded more like he was announcing the obvious than asking for confirmation.

"No." She confirmed. "I'm not used to being on the side of defeat in battle, and I grew tired of tossing and turning. I want to find this First Born and give him the taste of my blade that he so rightly deserves."

Upon hearing her statement, Batman paused the video and turned to face her. "While tossing and turning, did you happen to come up with some sort of epiphany on just how to go about doing that?" He doubtfully questioned.

"I'm aware now of the leeching strings he commands, and I just need to avoid those while also using the entirety of my abilities in order to achieve victory." Diana defiantly announced. "As an Amazon warrior, I won't stop until the First Born is defeated."

"You'll die." Batman bluntly responded.

Wonder Woman's ire instantly rose a few ticks after hearing his doubt in her. "Not before he does." She defiantly retorted.

"George Santayana would disagree with you." Batman said before turning back to the video.

"Who?" Diana questioned. "Why?"

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." He answered as he went to play the video again before pausing and turning ever so slightly toward her. "You already rushed in once without a well conceived plan of attack, and if it weren't for Hal and Victor, both you and Superman would've died. If you go in again thinking that just trying harder will get you any further, then you're only submitting to your own demise."

"You really think I am so ignorant as to try the same tactics when they failed in battle before?" Diana heatedly asked. "I have knowledge from my previous engagement with the First Born. I know of his tactics now, and with that knowledge I will be better prepared.

"But you're still planning a frontal assault after it didn't work the first time." Batman responded. "Even with the knowledge of what he can do, I've watched the video. Neither you or Superman were able to even harm him. I highly doubt using your sword this time will have much more of an effect."

"Then what do you suggest?" Diana sarcastically questioned.

"I'd start by looking into why he seemed to be interested in you." Batman suggested, noting her attitude but choosing to look past it. "It's obvious that Superman pulled his attention away from Cyborg and Shazam, but as soon as he saw you there, the First Born charged after you, completely ignoring Clark too even though he was still in the fight. Also, I may not be able to read every word due to the video angles, but it appears that he knows a bit about your history, especially if I'm right that he mentioned Hades to you while he had you in a choke hold."

"He called me a fellow child of Zeus." Diana admitted. "It seems that he believes Zeus is his father, but I've never heard or seen anything comparable to him before. Certainly no one who referred to themselves as the First Born. Also, he wanted Zeus to be informed that he's next."

"He seems incredibly confident, bordering on narcissism. Especially if he truly intends to take on a being as powerful as Zeus is said to be." Batman commented, speeding through the video to its end. "Perhaps that's the key. Maybe you should deliver his message to Zeus as an offer for information that might help us defeat him."

"I could reach out to Ares." Diana offered. "He may be able to provide me with the information we need."

"That's as good a place to start as any." Batman agreed. "See what you can find out, and we'll add it to my notes from the first encounter."

Diana smiled, ready to do what was needed in order to aid them in achieving victory over such a powerful foe. Having a direct course of action reinvigorated her, and she practically bounced up from her seated position, headed toward her altar. She wasn't about to waste any time in contacting her mentor, not wanting to give the First Born any more time to take innocent lives from the world if she could help it.

* * *

Superman touched down as silently as a feather onto the balcony of his apartment. His mood was absolutely somber as he kept replaying the fight over and over in his mind. The battle with the First Born rocked him mentally. He'd never been beaten so easily before, and was at a loss as to how the League would be able to stop such a monster before he murdered millions more innocent people. To make matters worse, Superman also felt absolutely powerless at the moment even though his strength had already fully returned to him.

When they'd all limped away in defeat to the Watchtower, all he wanted to do was get away. Doubt permeated his thoughts, and he needed some time to himself so he could clear his mind. So as soon as he could, he made his exit, returning to his sanctuary of Metropolis. He wasn't really going in any true direction, as it was more like he was going through the motions, changing clothing, putting on his black rimmed glasses, and heading out through his apartment door.

By the time he'd even realized what he was doing, he'd already managed to walk all the way into the lobby of the Dailey Planet. It was really early in the morning, and there was hardly anyone around. For possibly the first time ever, he didn't even have a companion in the elevator, but his solitude only lasted until he reached his desk. Just off to the side, he could make out the soft clicking of computer keys, and glanced around to see who was already hard at work.

"Early morning, Smallville?" Came from the female voice of the most competitive reporter in the world, none only than the one and only Lois Lane. She looked like she'd already downed an entire pot of coffee on her own, her fingers deftly flying about her keyboard at presumably hundreds of words per minute.

"Hot story?" Clark asked as he took his seat and pressed the power button to his own PC.

"Early bird Smallville, early bird." Lois offhandedly replied as she continued typing, focusing completely on finishing her story.

Clark couldn't help but smile at her response. Lois always was the type to try and remain one or even two steps ahead of every other reporter. She'd earned that right through her diligence, hard work, and unrivaled stubbornness over the years. She definitely had a fascinating personality.

"What about you?" Lois casually added, snapping Clark back into the moment. " _Hot story?_ "

"Couldn't sleep." He answered simply. "Growing up in Smallville, if you couldn't sleep, there was always work that could be done. I just figured since I wasn't getting any rest, I could at least get a jumpstart on the day."

"Ah, the many fabled lessons learned from the farm life in Smallville." Lois pretended to regale before refocusing back onto her story.

"I'll just...go get some coffee." Clark replied as he left Lois to her work. She'd been polite enough to pause in her work to talk to him, and that was more than he'd honestly expected as she was more like a one way locomotive when it came to finishing a story. It seemed like there was almost nothing more important once she dove into a topic that peaked her interest.

In fact, the only other person he knew of who might be more singularly focused than Lois was perhaps Batman, and it was a fairly close race when it came to a hot story Lois happened to stumble across. He only hoped he could find something worth diving into with such passion, if only so he could just stop thinking about what'd happened with the First Born, even if it was only going to be a temporary distraction.

* * *

"What word have you regarding the ones responsible for slaughtering those involved in potential conflicts?" Ares asked as he appeared before Diana's kneeling form.

"My colleagues and I came across a being, War God." Diana described. "He was incredibly powerful, and I'm disappointed to say that the might of the Justice League wasn't enough to stop him."

"This being must indeed by powerful." Ares mused. "Tell me about him."

"He calls himself the First Born." Diana answered. "And from what little he did reveal to us, he seems to believe that both he and I share Zeus as a father, and he seems to be hell bent on gaining Zeus' direct attention."

Ares began to pace in front of Diana, deep in thought as she continued to share the details of her encounter with this powerful being. It was concerning to hear just how easily the Kryptonian and Diana were defeated against the First Born. Although neither of them were gods, combined they were still a powerful force to contend with. However, there was also something else troubling him.

The motive on gaining the attention of Zeus didn't quite make sense, in that aside from the occasional tryst behind Hera's back, Zeus didn't really pay much attention to mortals. Their deaths were inconsequential to a being such as him. Perhaps Diana was the primary focus, being another child of Zeus? He couldn't be certain, as that would require a knowledge of the current goings in the world, and someone as powerful as the First Born would certainly have struck before now, especially if his goal was a future confrontation with his father.

Ares stopped in his pacing directly in front of Diana. "If what you have described is accurate, this being may very well be a child of Zeus." Ares surmised. "His power being above the Kryptonian's combined with yours is quite troubling. Travel to Lemnos and seek out Hephaestus. He will know what form of weaponry would be required to defeat this enemy. Meanwhile, I shall seek an audience with Zeus to discover just who this First Born really is."

"I will leave for Lemnos immediately, War God." Diana confirmed, and received a nod from Ares before he disappeared in a flash of bright fire, indicating that he'd likely traveled to Mount Olympus to do his part. She now had to do hers, but knew she needed to contact two others before departing. The first person she needed to speak with was solely for the purpose of the mission, whereas the second person was more personal than anything else.

First things first, she thought as she reached up to her ear and pressed on her communicator. "Wonder Woman to Batman." She announced.

There was a period of silence, but not long enough to irk her impatience before he responded. "Go ahead."

"I've spoken to the War God, and he is seeking answers from Zeus regarding our new enemy." She detailed. "He has also ordered that I locate the Smithing God, Hephaestus, as he would be able to provide the necessary weapon to take down someone as powerful as I described."

"How long?"

"I wouldn't think it will take more than a couple days, but if it does I'll be certain to inform you and the others." Diana answered.

"Good." Batman replied. "Add what you find to my notes from the previous fight with the First Born. Then I want everyone to report in for a meeting to formulate a plan of attack."

"Even J'onn?" Diana questioned, seeing just how dangerous Batman believed the First Born to be.

"...Yes." He eventually conceded before quickly reigning the conversation in, preventing Diana from saying something that would make him regret his response. "Just contact me when you find out about the weapon. I've got other cases to investigate. Batman out."

Diana smiled upon hearing Batman's hasty exit. She could tell from the tone even through his altered voice that she'd made him uncomfortable. She knew to suggest he wasn't a trusting person was a vast understatement, and she had to admit that she was slightly surprised he was willing to say yes in allowing J'onn to become involved. She'd been expecting either a blatant "no", or at the most, a "we'll see" type of response.

If it weren't for the situation, she would've gotten a laugh out of it, but for Batman to involve J'onn indicated just how dangerous he believed the First Born to be. For Batman to trust a probationary member on a mission revealed as much as anything on just how he felt about a situation. His research had obviously caused him to believe that even when they attained the weapon from Hephaestus, the League would still need all of its members to have a legitimate chance.

Though in thinking about it, she had to agree. The League likely would still need everyone involved. Some would only be able to serve as a distraction while others would have to help keep innocent civilians out of harm's way, and the rest would have to focus on taking the powerful brute down with the weapon.

Thoughts of the weapon caused her to focus back onto her task at hand, and she made to leave the Watchtower, heading for the Javelin bay. She would have to make her other call while en route to Lemnos.

* * *

Lois was fighting to regain her composure after laughing heartily at her co-worker's expense. "Oh, that has to be something you picked up from the Kansas lifestyle, eh Smallville?" She teased.

Clark smiled in response. He enjoyed it when pieces of his childhood life shown brightly for others to see. It was a sense of pride with regard to his upbringing, and he didn't mind at all even if others found his qualities humorous. Looking at it from another angle, it also revealed more about the woman who'd finally managed to stop laughing. Lois had obviously been living in a big city more so than not.

Coming in early seemed to be a blessing for him. He'd never gotten along so well with the Daily Planet's top investigative reporter before, and it also helped take his mind off of the beating he'd been on the receiving end of. However, as the saying went, all good things must come to an end, and this good bit of banter with Lois was halted by the dinging of the elevator bell, indicating they were about to have a third person join them.

Perry White stepped out once the elevator doors slid open, but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him. Never before had anyone other than Lois beaten him into the office, and now on this morning, he was apparently a distant third. They'd both been there for a while, as evidenced by the half empty coffee pot one of them had taken to Lois' desk. He wasn't about to be discouraged though as he looked to his watch for the time, and then smiled as he continued to trek toward his office.

"Taking notes from Lane are you Kent?" He lightly questioned. "I was wondering if anyone had the fortitude to step up to her level of effort. Good to see you taking the initiative."

"Umm, err...yeah chief." Clark replied, not wanting to lie to Mr. White, but immediately thinking better of ruining what appeared to be the good mood Perry was in. He glanced over to the other person who knew the truth to his being there, and her nod confirmed to him that he'd made the correct choice in his response.

"Keep after her Kent." Perry said as he reached his office door and stopped to look back at his eager reporters. "If you do, then in no time I'll be able to boast about having the best tandem of reporters for any paper on the globe."

"Speaking of chief..." Lois chimed in, hopping up out of her seat and following Perry into his office before closing the door behind her. Clark shook his head as he returned to his own desk, ready to take Perry's advice and actually start working on his next story until he was interrupted by a beep from his communicator.

Clark sighed, not really wanting to have League work already, but knowing that it was his duty as a hero to respond. So he grabbed the coffee pot on the premise that Clark Kent was returning it to the break room, and enabled his communicator while using his x-ray vision to ensure no one would be within earshot. "Superman here. Go ahead."

"Hello Superman." Diana responded.

* * *

The trip to Lemnos was quite uneventful and quiet aboard Diana's invisible jet. She was able to pass a short amount of time informing Superman of her departure, and started going into greater detail, telling him how long to potentially expect her absence from the League, but the conversation was forced to end abruptly as other people started to swarm around where he'd been at the time. He was actually forced to cut the line off in mid-sentence, and she assumed someone must've walked directly into earshot of where he'd been standing.

Having to tiptoe around the populous happened to be one of the quirks Diana found to be confounding in the sheer necessity of it all. She knew that the majority of the Justice League had secret identities of their own, but at times, with her being around Superman, it seemed to be more of a wasted effort with little to gain from it. Aside from the occasional blending in to have some form of normalcy, she just couldn't wrap her mind around the need for it. Especially having a job and secondary home.

She could certainly understand someone such as J'onn having one. He'd been under heavy scrutiny just because he was an alien who didn't appear human in his natural form. Superman didn't have this problem, and aside from Cyborg, the rest of the League members could all blend in to the populous. Or at least she could assume as much from most of the others. Flash and Batman had the majority of their faces covered after all. Who knew if they were hiding some horrendous disfigurement or not.

She spent the remainder of the trip pondering such confusing things from Patriarch's world until she'd reached her destination and touched the plane down in a discreet little field. It wasn't far from the hidden entrance to the Smithing God's workshop, and she guessed that would be the best place to seek him out. Everything she'd been taught about him gave her the impression that he rarely left, always keeping himself occupied with his works.

As she moved in closer, she began to hear the sounds of a hammer smashing into what was likely heated metal, and it wasn't long before she reached an opening, revealing the Smithing God before her, hard at work.

"Been a long time since an Amazon thought it wise to stop by for a visit, Princess." Hephaestus grumbled as he inspected his latest creation. His speaking up caught her off guard at being discovered, but she soon realized she should've known better than to think her silent entrance would prevent the Smithing God from noticing her.

"I come at the order of the War God." She announced.

"Hasn't Ares received enough of my artwork?" Hephaestus complained. "What more could he want for his collection?"

"This isn't for Ares' collection." Diana explained. "I've recently come across a powerful being who claims to be a child of Zeus. He refers to himself of the First Born."

"First Born eh." Hephaestus repeated as he set what looked like the beginning of another masterpiece aside to cool. "And you as an Amazon child of Zeus weren't already more than an match for him?"

"Unfortunately, no I, nor the rest of the Justice League were a match for him." Diana replied. "In fact, we could hardly even cause any harm to him. Had Green Lantern and Cyborg not thought quickly and created an escape route, it is entirely possible the First Born would've killed us all. Upon hearing this, Ares made mention of a weapon powerful enough to defeat our enemy, and he believed you would know of it and how to attain it."

"Oh I know of it." Hephaestus confirmed, moving to stoke his furnace fire a bit. "But it's not just one thing you would need. If this First Born is as powerful as you say, it would seem you need a weapon powerful enough to kill a God. You'll have to retrieve two items and combine them to have any chance, and if you retrieve these items, you'll still only have one shot to defeat a God."


End file.
